Saturday Late/Sunday Early

Dear Jack,

I'm sitting here watching SNL with Michael. Not much going on really. We have the newcomers' brunch tomorrow at church. Keri will be joining us. Work is going... not great, not completely awful. It's work. I'm excited about Halloween and the parade. Should be fun.

Had a migraine headache earlier today, I think it was weather induced. Luckily, I believe it is gone.

If something exciting happens I'll post.

OH I am upset with the NY City Council... well at least 29 of them who chose to ignore previous Voter referendums on term limits and self-interestedly decided to allow themselves a third term at the request of billionaire mayor Bloomberg. They could do what they did, but they shouldn't have. DISAPPOINTING.

High Hopes

Dear Jack,

If all goes well, things will be changing for the better in my life. I can't go into detail right now, but the prospects include the most expensive thing in the world...TIME.

Over the past 8 months I have had a huge scarcity of Time. With work, I have had little time to foster friendships; participate in Church, social groups, and outings; spend meaningful time with Michael outside of an hour at the end of the day; read books; do some hardcore genealogy; catch up with correspondence; work on my Recipe journal; and many other things that I find important and meaningful in my life.

Most jobs I have had in my life have been more of a 9-5 plan. My current is not so, and it's not just because I work officially 10-6. It is because in my current job, so much is reliant on the availability of my supervisor, and the needs that come, often at 5:59 that don't get solved until much later. I'm not saying anything about my supervisor, per se, but more about the flow of work. As understanding as she can be, the work would still be the work, and the timing would still be the timing. And my Time, which I need for the things above, is therefore always scarce.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the scarcity of time, as well as the priorities on actions within the time. Work is a high priority, but for me, it cannot be the top one outside of work hours. My first priorities are to God, family, and friends, as well as the needs of myself. Work supports my own needs, but is not the end all for fulfillment in my life like the first three are. Work allows for abundance in life (if a person is paid well enough and can manage it), but it does not provide for the intention to live life more abundantly or fully.

When I am not able to live life to its fullest, or to have an abundance of time with God, family, and friends, I become...depressed isn't the right word...down, maybe; or just filled with angst. It doesn't provide for a healthy life at work, or outside of work.

I am hopeful things are going to improve, and when they do, you'll be the first to know.

PFLAG

Dear Jack,

Tonight I went to the PFLAG NYC 35th Anniversary Awards Dinner. It was held in Tribeca at the Tribeca Rooftop. I found it a little posh, but the food was good, and I didn't buy the ticket, so who am I to complain.

I think PFLAG is a very important organization, and my thoughts were only confirmed tonight as we heard speakers sharing their experiences and how PFLAG has been helpful in reuniting families. The most remarkable involved a mother of a child who came out as transgendered at the age of five. I do not know how I would have reacted as a parent, and I'm fairly liberal. Mind you I could not envision coming out at 5 either. Either way it must have been tough.

Anyways, I'm home now chatting with Alia on G-Chat, and will probably head to bed. It was a good event. Contgrats to Dirk and the rest of the honorees.

Blog Feeds

Dear Jack,

Thanks to Joe Said So, I have learned some cool things about Facebook and how it will interact with my blog. I am really happy about it. The new way things are set up allows for my posts to appear in Facebook, and only to friends, and of that only friends who I choose to share it with. Thus if a friends sees this note, they know they are being shared with.

I have a migraine today, and had to miss church. The meds are kicking in, thus why I'm online right now. Mike and I are doing dinner with Dirk and his mother. Tomorrow is the PFLAG dinner, and it does not appear that I'll be going. I'm not sure if I'm glad or sad.

Yesterday Mike and I did some cleaning. I did dishes and cleaned the kitchen while Mike worked on the dining table. I feel like I got more done than he did, as he reads everything he picks up, and I don't have to read dishes other than to see they are clean and dry. I want to get things clean enough to have some guests over for a small fall tea. Not sure if it will be before or after Thanksgiving...we'll see.

Later last night we went to John's for an Arbonne party. There were not a lot of people there, unfortunately. The product seems good, but a little pricey for me. I wish J4hn luck as he tries to add that income to his life.

I also have found my old journal from my trip to Germany. I have decided to transcribe it into my blog and allow it to be preserved digitally as well as in its original form. Plus, reviewing it, I can add notes or links to obscure references, thus keeping the original meaning of the journal itself.

I hope I can find my Russian Journal too, as I would like to add that too. I need to finds some stuff from 2002 also. That way I can have some blogs that span 10 years. For some reason it seems important to me. I'm not quite sure why. In 2006 and 2007 I didn't do much blogging, and I feel like the years and the often mundane events will be forgotten. Additionally, a lot of what happened in those two years is significant, but never documented.

My goal is to keep up this journaling, and to add stuff from the past as I am able to find it.

September Ends

Dear Jack,

Well the month of September is ending. Here's the wrap up.

Mike's nervous about work because of the shifting climate in attitudes among those in charge. It also appears they may close the bookstore. It doesn't look like a good situation for him regardless. Emotionally and spiritually he needs to leave. We're going to focus in October on getting him a more secure job.

My job is going well. I had a good heart-to-heart with Yetta which ended with a good compromise where I will be eventually faded out of the YGK09 stuff. My primary work will be at HWLC. I am excited to see how it develops.

We are official members of St. Luke's, and we attended the fall dinner there. We have found so many nice people there and great opportunities to expand our ministries. The place just feels right.

The biggest problems outside of Mike's work is that the dishwasher has died, as well as the DVD player and the freezer part of the fridge. We have to get them fixed. The fridge and dishwasher will be at the landlord's expense, whereas the DVD player is ours.

In general, I think things are looking up. Autumn is here, and thus begins the series of events that I call my favorite time of the year.

Working Weekend

Dear Jack,

This was a long weekend. Yesterday I ran the booth for Yetta at London Terrace. Two of our volunteers did not show up, which put some extra pressure on. The street fair was pretty good, despite the small size of it and the constant drizzle of rain. I think Yetta met more people in that time than we have yet. It will definitely help her cause. Afterwords, Karen, Katsumi, Michael, Elizabeth, Yetta and I went to Grand Szechuan for dinner. It's my favorite Chinese restaurant.

Today we had an event at Animal Haven SoHo, and then I joined Michael and Paul at the Center for the 25th Anniversary. It was busy busy, and humid, but I still managed to enjoy myself. We did dinner at Cowgirl, and then met up with Daniel at Michael's Restaurant.

I'm glad Yetta is letting me come in tomorrow at noon.

Bad Day All Around.

Dear Jack,

Michael had a bad day today. I feel for him. I too haven't had a great day. My back has been hurting for a couple weeks, and today that coupled with a bad migraine. It has been pretty awful. I ended up staying home, unable to see clearly. I wish my insurance would kick in soon so I could go see a doctor about it all. Yetta keeps on saying she's going to submit the paperwork, but I'm going on 7+ months at the job, and still nothing. I am very frustrated with the whole situation. I notified her that I am going to look for another.

Our fridge has died, our dish washer has died, and tonight our DVD player has died. Something is just not going right. And I'm being underpaid so I can't even pay to get them fixed. I'm sorta depressed all around.

Been a Long, Been a Long, Been a Long Day...

Dear Jack,

Had a long day. It was good and productive though. Things are going great with the YGK09 stuff and I'm hyped. I'm about to head to bed, but wanted to post. Not much happened today other than I got a lot of work done, and was there a long while. I ate a hotdog, and that was great.

That's all for now.