Perceptions and Illusions

In my youth, I had a theory that people could easily be placed in generations based on their place in a family. If you were a parent, you belonged in the parent group, you were the parent generation. All parents were the "parent age", and should willingly hang out with the other parents. It worked the same with grandparents, who enjoyed the company of others of "grandparent age".

But then, people started talking about Baby Boomers. I was shocked to learn the long span of years that were included in a "generation". Around 20!

Okay, so here's something to think about.

A generation is defined as approximately 20 years. If I was born at the beginning of my generation and I had a child at the age of 18, my child and I would be a part of the same generation.

Totally destroys my theory!

Labels: blogging, history, life, myth or reality

I will be so glad when Tuesday is done and gone. It's impossible to get away from all the political ads, and my mind needs a break from all the nastiness and confusion.

But I have a secret. It's not a big, humongous secret. It is a little, annoying secret, one that I've already shared with my family and close friends.

You see, there is a candidate for Congress that I know one tiny little thing about. A tiny thing that shows what her character is made of, and that she doesn't know the meaning of ethics.

You see, several years ago I was laid off from my job, and my family was struggling to make ends meet. Times were tough, and I was frantically trying to get myself re-employed so that my family's financial stability could be restored.

I was estatic to have the opportunity to interview at Microsoft, and I was fully confident that I was a good fit for the job.

I met with the hiring manager, and the interview began. She seemed to be a nice woman, she described to me exactly what the job entailed, and I explained how I could accomplish each task, and how I could add value.

She explained that in order for her to make a decision, she needed to know my working methods and ability. Therefore, she wanted me to tell her my ideas about how she could restructure her site to make the information flow more easily.

After I had completed the task, she suddenly jumped up and said she had to go check on something.

About 5-10 minutes later, a young woman came into the office, and said she had been sent to escort me out of the building. I asked if it would be possible to thank the hiring manager for her time, and the young woman said that the manager was unavailable. She said I shouldn't worry about the abrupt departure, that the manager was "just like that."

A couple weeks later I was chatting with a friend of mine about her job search, and was surprised to discover that we had both interviewed for the same position at Microsoft. (It was easy to remember the name of this hiring manager, because really, how many women at Microsoft have the first name Darcy?)

My friend had left her interview with the task of creating a mock-up of a redesign of the site, to make it more esthetically pleasing. She had done the requested work.

A month later, both of us consoled with each other that neither of us had heard back from the hiring manager, which must mean neither of us were going to get the job.

Out of curiosity, we visited the site I had been asked to restructure, and my friend to redesign.

Shock! Total shock! There, replacing the old site, was a combination of our work. She had interviewed each of us, requested work from us, and combined our work without any recompense, without a "thank you", and even without a polite "sorry, but you are not hired."

And this woman is running for Congress? She claims to be ethical, looking out for the interest for others?

Hardly!

Labels: blogging, family, history, life, world

I remember...

Being awakened in the early hours of the morning by my husband. My 15 year old daughter had woken him up because of what she had heard on the radio.

I remember...

Looking at television, horrified that a pilot had made such a terrible mistake and crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings. My heart ached as I thought of the families of the unfortunate who were either in the plane or in the section of the building that had been hit.

I remember...

Watching the second plane crash into the World Trade Center. My first thought was that the whole scene was surreal. It had to be some kind of publicity stunt for a new movie. One plane hitting was a trajedy, two was impossible.

I remember...

The sudden realization that this was no accident, this was no stunt, this was real, and this was an attack. Innocent people going about their daily lives had been attacked and killed. In America.

I remember...

The feeling of fear. Would more attacks follow? How would I be able to keep my family safe? How could life continue?

I remember...

Hearing of the attack on the Pentagon, and of a plane going down in a field. I'll never forget the look on my husband's face as we talked about what might come, especially after the plot against our country was discovered and then publicized. Suddenly the world had became a much more dangerous place.

I remember...

Realizing that this was not a series of events that would mark a single day, this was a series of events that would change every day. It was a lonely time. It was a stressful time. It was a time I never want to relive. Many things happened then, and in the days that followed, that I would rather forget.

But I'll remember...

That I am fortunate. I can empathize with the families of those who died on September 11th, but I cannot truly feel their pain. My loved ones were safe on that eventful.

And I pledge to remember...

That it was not buildings that were attacked, it was my country. And though it took a little longer than I would have liked, America took action. I'll continue to be proud of my country. And I'll continue to be in awe of the selflessness of people like my husband and other members of the military who regularly sacrifice to protect my country.

I sincerely hope Americans always remember what it really means to the an American.

Labels: family, history, life, world

I celebrated my anniversary this weekend. I have now officially been married more than half my life.

When I met my husband, I realized very quickly that he was the man I wanted to marry. I don't quite know why (we came from different backgrounds), but we matched perfectly. We liked the same things, had the same interests, enjoyed the same foods. We even had matching fingerprints!

Probably most important of all, we could talk for hours and hours. We still can.

There is no doubt that my husband is my best friend.

After all these years, he is still the only man I've ever met I can imagine as my husband.

Labels: history

While we were deciding and planning to go to college, I worked hard to set us up financially as well as I could. I made sure we had no bills, and we actually had a little in savings.

I must say, going to school with a family was the hardest, and most rewarding, thing I've ever done (except write).

I say family instead of 3 kids because after 1 quarter at UW, I became pregnant with my 4th.

You don't know joy until you've had to run from one class to another, across a huge campus, pregnant, in the rain (UW is in Seatle).

Since I had little ones, I learned some very valuable lessons early on. Procrastination was out. If I even hesitated a little before I started an assignment, a child was sure to get ill and I would need to stay up all night being a mommy.

I became a lean, mean, studying machine. Efficiency should have become my middle name. But I like the middle name I was born with, so I decided to keep it.

Labels: history

Being a mother is hard work. All consuming work. Which is okay by me, since I prefer to throw myself whole-heartedly into everything I do.

So before I knew it, I had 2 more children!

It is at this point that my husband and I decided that we would never be where we wanted to be unless we made a very gutsy move. It took us a full two years to finally make the decision, but make it we did!

We had decided to go back to school and get our Bachelor degrees. Both of us.

My husband was active duty Air Force, and his time in the military was almost up. But he loved to fly--so much so that he felt he could not give it up totally. He solved that problem by joining the Air Force Reserves.

We loaded up our three children (ages less than 1 - 5), sold our house, and moved across the country to be near the University of Washington.

We had researched various institutions of higher learning, and decided that the University of Washington had the reputation, classes, and opportunities we sought.

In all honesty, I'm glad we didn't have a clue what we were setting ourselves up for.

Labels: history

I've always been a writer. I can remember that as a child I would write poetry for anyone who would be kind enough to read it. I particularly liked to make birthday cards, because then I knew I had an audience who would read and (I hoped) enjoy what I had to offer.

The plans of my childhood were to make writing my career, and I decided it was time to act on that plan shortly after my marriage 23 years ago.

That is, of course, until I was blessed with the birth of my first child. At that point, my world shifted and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, more important than my family. Writing could wait.

Labels: history, writing

Actually, this is only the beginning of the blog. The beginning of the book goes back to 2003 when I finally decided I had waited long enough to begin it, and the story itself, well, it has roots in my childhood.

Labels: blogging, history