They beam down at me from just above my pillow in a mixed shade of green, blue and grey accompanied by a tiny dimple, pearly whites and unruly morning hair. It's my son's eyes, bright and smiling, as he gently nudges my shoulder and softly says, "Mom, are you ready to wake up?". I've only been asleep for an hour and groggily say, "Not really, buddy, why?".
"I want to give you your Christmas gift" comes the reply. I can tell by the look on his face that he's quite proud of this gift so I start to wake up. The reaction time of a 13-year old boy is mind boggling! In the time it takes me to adjust my pillow and begin sitting up, he flips on the bedside lamp with lightening speed while simultaneously turning to grab a small box from across the room. Hello!!! Bright light! If I had any qualms about waking up they're quickly forgotten as the light infuses my sleepy eyes with painful brightness. Good golly.
He presents me with a tiny black sateen box---the kind that jewelry comes in. Before I open the box, he asks me to remove my current necklace and wear what he is now giving me. Right about now there are a couple thoughts flying through my mind. One is the recollection of some 'beautiful' jewelry that as a little girl I had given my mom for Christmas. Oh, please, God let him have better taste than I did! (Bless you, Mom, for keeping it all these years in spite of the way it looks.) Second and more calming is the fact that he's a fairly good judge of all things Mom and soaks up off-handed comments I make about likes and dislikes.
So I open the box. It's a box in a box. Ever notice how jewelry makers have a knack for nestling one box in another? Is that to protect the contents? I'm unclear on how much jostling it takes to damage a forged metal piece of jewelry packed in a sturdily constructed velveteen cushioned box within a box but, okay, whatever. Pack to your heart's content. I open the smaller interior box.
A new car, a million dollars or the trip of a lifetime pale in comparison to my gift. It's a simple sterling silver open heart shaped pendant. It was handpicked for me by my sweet, sweet son. I give him a huge thank-you hug and kiss on the cheek. I tell him I love him and wonder if he realizes how special he is with his own heart of gold that touches me daily. Of course he knows because all through his life I've told him that he makes my heart smile. Today was certainly no exception! I love you, Connor.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Rockin' and rollin'
I spent the last week in Maryland attending a class for Earthquake Preparedness. The title struck me as odd because my idea of EQ preparedness is to say "oh sh**" and run like the dickens from the chaos of the world shaking around me. There's really no training required for that response and I've got it down to a science.
Okay so that's not really my response to the ground shaking, rumbling, wooziness also known as earthquakes. They are, however, unnerving to me because they come with no warning. For those few seconds, your heart may race and your world is physically shaken but it all calms down and life is good. Sort of. In reality, you're waiting for the next temblor knowing that they rarely come alone. I compare this to scary movies when you just know for certain that there's another scary guy around the corner.
The class focused on the scope of emergency responses for such events. Whew! Imagine my relief when I realized the class wouldn't be running sprints to the door to see who got out of the building the fastest. Ready.....set......go!
Seriously though. It's astounding to see the scope of agencies, people, equipment, resources, cooperation, coordination and communication (the three C's, they call it) and ingenuity that comes into play during a catastrophe such as an earthquake. Dispatching will still be my role if a catastrophe ever strikes and this class helped emphasize that every role is important. All levels of emergency responders and management will be involved from the upper echelon to the little people. And all levels will have something to contribute, something that puts the extra piece of the puzzle into place.
There's no need for details of lessons learned, presentations or class literature on the blog here though.
It was just nice to go to training that I feel will be useful. It was nice to see that the team truly does consist of everyone. There is some amazing talent out there in the world of emergency responders but I knew that before class began. (wink and smile)
Okay so that's not really my response to the ground shaking, rumbling, wooziness also known as earthquakes. They are, however, unnerving to me because they come with no warning. For those few seconds, your heart may race and your world is physically shaken but it all calms down and life is good. Sort of. In reality, you're waiting for the next temblor knowing that they rarely come alone. I compare this to scary movies when you just know for certain that there's another scary guy around the corner.
The class focused on the scope of emergency responses for such events. Whew! Imagine my relief when I realized the class wouldn't be running sprints to the door to see who got out of the building the fastest. Ready.....set......go!
There's no need for details of lessons learned, presentations or class literature on the blog here though.
It was just nice to go to training that I feel will be useful. It was nice to see that the team truly does consist of everyone. There is some amazing talent out there in the world of emergency responders but I knew that before class began. (wink and smile)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Paper-mania
I'm going to be creative on my day off. My goal is to make five Hanukkah cards and ten Christmas cards as requested by a friend at work. This should be simple. I'm very creative when it comes to this stuff. I'll be done in no time.
My ambitions begin with a walk downstairs to the computer/craft room in our house. Amazingly it's pretty organized and straightened up. Almost peaceful. Ahhh, no clutter. Fast forward about twenty minutes.............
The "daybed" is now kasplattered (far worse than splattered) with 12" x 12" scrapbooking papers of a bazillion different Christmas patterns. Some are held together in tablet form, others have been singled out over time for later use. Layered oh so precisely (NOT!) alongside the large papers are roughly a dozen 4" x 6" x 1" paper tablets. These consist of spring season patterns, primary colors, fall colors, Far East motif--aka serene, Rosie Posie motifs--aka fufu, plaids, flowers, dots, lines, bugs, swirls, snowflakes, trees and plain old every day colored paper. Teetering on top of those piles are three 12" x 12" x 1" plastic bins containing, what else, the scraps from all the other papers I've used over time. There isn't a theme to these scraps though I have managed to paperclip bundles together by color.
Hmm? Well, I'm not really finding what I'm looking for. I'll take out more papers. Surely the paper to complete my design is here somewhere. Design? Design. Oh, that's right, I don't have a design in mind. It's just a blurred image of a vague idea derived from spastic brain synapses that I thought might lead to an end product. Oh well. No big deal. Dis is how I roll wid it, ya'll.
Ok. Whew! I got an idea. Got the papers to go with the idea. Got the rotary cutter, paper slicer, Xacto knife and Cricut cutter to make the papers the right size. Just go along with me here, okay? What goes on the papers though? Fast forward another twenty minutes........
The floor in front of the closet has now become the dumping ground for a bevy of clear acrylic holiday themed stamps, two dozen ink pads, two stamp blocks and one stamp cleaning pad. I pick and choose what I'd like to use today. A teeny pair of scissors, a medium pair of scissors, small hole punch, regular hole punch, glue-tape gun (coolest thing ever), vellum adhesive, repositionable adhesive, 2" wide adhesive backing machine, dimensional adhesive dots and two liquid glue sticks are all brought to the card table in the corner by the desk.
Yippee for me! I found a stamp I like in a color I like on paper I like. Sure looks boring just plopped on top of the Christmas paper background on the white card though. Oooohh, I know what I'll do. Only ten minutes lapse this time...........
The desk beside the card table across from the daybed opposite the closet is now host to a small pink tackle box. I've never gone ice fishing so don't worry we're not going there. This box contains itty-bitty eyelets and brads ranging from shades of yellow to shades of black as well as bronze, copper, silver and gold. Each one is about as big around as a pencil eraser. And if you drop the box, all the itty-bittys make a big big mess. Ask me how I know. Of course, I now need my tool set for setting eyelets, right? Get that tool set out.
Good Lord. I need tea! Zazu needs to go outside. My tummy is rumbly. "Be right back" I say out loud as if the explosion of color and doo-dads on tables and beds could understand. At this point, not one card has been assembled. Ugh. The creative process is grueling.
I'm back. This whole assembly process should go quickly now that I have a full tummy and caffeine.
All righty then. In the end, I opted for stamping a cute snowman in black ink onto white paper. Really? With an assortment of papers that would make the 64-count crayon box jealous, I chose white? Go figure. I then decided to color his scarf and hat with some really cool markers that I splurged on this past summer. I trimmed around his rotund snowman figure using the teeny scissors, adhered him to the card with dimensional stickers. He's so cute hovering over the background Christmas themed paper in all his glory. He stands beside a "Happy Holidays" stamped in red ink on, you guessed it, white paper. What's up with that? Add an eyelet on one card, a brad on another or maybe two miniscule buttons and taadaa!! I made six Christmas cards. Shoot, I need four more to complete the order.
Time to tackle the Hanukkah cards. Uhm, I'm not Jewish nor do I know much about any religion. This project makes me a little nervous. I don't want to offend anyone or do anything sacrilegious. Oddly enough this card design comes to me quickly. A menorah, the words "Happy Hanukkah" in beautiful shades of blue and a silver Star of David charm outfit the cards. I use a paper punch to make nine candles for each menorah out of blue vellum and silver paper. I realize that, indeed, I can be extremely patient as evidenced by peeling adhesive off 45 paper candles that are only 1/8" wide by 1/2" tall and putting them on the menorahs.
I often think that card-making is something anyone can do. You come up with a design, put it together and voila a greeting card. A quick, streamlined process with a tangible result.
For me, however, card-making is time consuming. I try to imagine myself as the person receiving the card. Would I like it? Would it bring a smile to my face, my heart, my mind? I wonder what's going through the mind of the recipient, what's going on in their life. I don't claim to know the inner workings of people but I'd like to think that more often than not I get it right when it comes to designing a card that speaks to someone's soul.
For me, card-making is an ever changing idea that culminates in beauty. Quite often my designs are a jumble of disconnected ideas that morph themselves into one final product. I don't sketch blueprints like engineers do. Usually the ideas are fleeting and never get repeated. So chances are if you have a card made by me, it's a one-of-a-kind original. The designs come as I sit at the table and begin my tornado of creativity. The process isn't pretty as you've seen above. It is, however, "how I roll wid it" (smile) and it's almost always productive.
For me, card-making is one of the things I do that makes ME smile. I may not have an abundance of confidence in what I can and can't do in life but I'll tell you this. I can create with my hands something that brings smiles to the world. I can brighten someone's day with a silly old piece of colored papered and smatterings of ink. As I once told a close friend "it's a hug with a fold in the middle". It can travel with you, sit by your bedside, look back at you from the mirror's edge, whatever you'd like.
And that, my friend, is what makes my heart smile. (PS: The aforementioned smile process took about 4 hours but it was worth it)
My ambitions begin with a walk downstairs to the computer/craft room in our house. Amazingly it's pretty organized and straightened up. Almost peaceful. Ahhh, no clutter. Fast forward about twenty minutes.............
The "daybed" is now kasplattered (far worse than splattered) with 12" x 12" scrapbooking papers of a bazillion different Christmas patterns. Some are held together in tablet form, others have been singled out over time for later use. Layered oh so precisely (NOT!) alongside the large papers are roughly a dozen 4" x 6" x 1" paper tablets. These consist of spring season patterns, primary colors, fall colors, Far East motif--aka serene, Rosie Posie motifs--aka fufu, plaids, flowers, dots, lines, bugs, swirls, snowflakes, trees and plain old every day colored paper. Teetering on top of those piles are three 12" x 12" x 1" plastic bins containing, what else, the scraps from all the other papers I've used over time. There isn't a theme to these scraps though I have managed to paperclip bundles together by color.
Hmm? Well, I'm not really finding what I'm looking for. I'll take out more papers. Surely the paper to complete my design is here somewhere. Design? Design. Oh, that's right, I don't have a design in mind. It's just a blurred image of a vague idea derived from spastic brain synapses that I thought might lead to an end product. Oh well. No big deal. Dis is how I roll wid it, ya'll.
Ok. Whew! I got an idea. Got the papers to go with the idea. Got the rotary cutter, paper slicer, Xacto knife and Cricut cutter to make the papers the right size. Just go along with me here, okay? What goes on the papers though? Fast forward another twenty minutes........
The floor in front of the closet has now become the dumping ground for a bevy of clear acrylic holiday themed stamps, two dozen ink pads, two stamp blocks and one stamp cleaning pad. I pick and choose what I'd like to use today. A teeny pair of scissors, a medium pair of scissors, small hole punch, regular hole punch, glue-tape gun (coolest thing ever), vellum adhesive, repositionable adhesive, 2" wide adhesive backing machine, dimensional adhesive dots and two liquid glue sticks are all brought to the card table in the corner by the desk.
Yippee for me! I found a stamp I like in a color I like on paper I like. Sure looks boring just plopped on top of the Christmas paper background on the white card though. Oooohh, I know what I'll do. Only ten minutes lapse this time...........
The desk beside the card table across from the daybed opposite the closet is now host to a small pink tackle box. I've never gone ice fishing so don't worry we're not going there. This box contains itty-bitty eyelets and brads ranging from shades of yellow to shades of black as well as bronze, copper, silver and gold. Each one is about as big around as a pencil eraser. And if you drop the box, all the itty-bittys make a big big mess. Ask me how I know. Of course, I now need my tool set for setting eyelets, right? Get that tool set out.
Good Lord. I need tea! Zazu needs to go outside. My tummy is rumbly. "Be right back" I say out loud as if the explosion of color and doo-dads on tables and beds could understand. At this point, not one card has been assembled. Ugh. The creative process is grueling.
I'm back. This whole assembly process should go quickly now that I have a full tummy and caffeine.
All righty then. In the end, I opted for stamping a cute snowman in black ink onto white paper. Really? With an assortment of papers that would make the 64-count crayon box jealous, I chose white? Go figure. I then decided to color his scarf and hat with some really cool markers that I splurged on this past summer. I trimmed around his rotund snowman figure using the teeny scissors, adhered him to the card with dimensional stickers. He's so cute hovering over the background Christmas themed paper in all his glory. He stands beside a "Happy Holidays" stamped in red ink on, you guessed it, white paper. What's up with that? Add an eyelet on one card, a brad on another or maybe two miniscule buttons and taadaa!! I made six Christmas cards. Shoot, I need four more to complete the order.
Time to tackle the Hanukkah cards. Uhm, I'm not Jewish nor do I know much about any religion. This project makes me a little nervous. I don't want to offend anyone or do anything sacrilegious. Oddly enough this card design comes to me quickly. A menorah, the words "Happy Hanukkah" in beautiful shades of blue and a silver Star of David charm outfit the cards. I use a paper punch to make nine candles for each menorah out of blue vellum and silver paper. I realize that, indeed, I can be extremely patient as evidenced by peeling adhesive off 45 paper candles that are only 1/8" wide by 1/2" tall and putting them on the menorahs.
I often think that card-making is something anyone can do. You come up with a design, put it together and voila a greeting card. A quick, streamlined process with a tangible result.
For me, however, card-making is time consuming. I try to imagine myself as the person receiving the card. Would I like it? Would it bring a smile to my face, my heart, my mind? I wonder what's going through the mind of the recipient, what's going on in their life. I don't claim to know the inner workings of people but I'd like to think that more often than not I get it right when it comes to designing a card that speaks to someone's soul.
For me, card-making is an ever changing idea that culminates in beauty. Quite often my designs are a jumble of disconnected ideas that morph themselves into one final product. I don't sketch blueprints like engineers do. Usually the ideas are fleeting and never get repeated. So chances are if you have a card made by me, it's a one-of-a-kind original. The designs come as I sit at the table and begin my tornado of creativity. The process isn't pretty as you've seen above. It is, however, "how I roll wid it" (smile) and it's almost always productive.
For me, card-making is one of the things I do that makes ME smile. I may not have an abundance of confidence in what I can and can't do in life but I'll tell you this. I can create with my hands something that brings smiles to the world. I can brighten someone's day with a silly old piece of colored papered and smatterings of ink. As I once told a close friend "it's a hug with a fold in the middle". It can travel with you, sit by your bedside, look back at you from the mirror's edge, whatever you'd like.
And that, my friend, is what makes my heart smile. (PS: The aforementioned smile process took about 4 hours but it was worth it)
Friday, December 4, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Sharing my world
Today I decided to start blogging. Blogging about what? I'm unsure at this point. Ideas will certainly pop into my brain as the days go by, right? For now, I'm content to roll thoughts around in my head and hope to find a way to put them down on paper. Well, actually into cyberspace as it were.
I'm a 911 dispatcher and, as such, I get to see the worst of people along with the best of them and each day I get a view into all walks of life. Quite often I wonder what makes me tick in this field of work.....why do I do it and how does one survive consistently seeing the not so happy side of society? Some might say, don't take it personally. That's easier said than done and there's an art to doing so.
I know a lot of folks don't appreciate what dispatchers do. That's okay though because you'll probably never find a dispatcher who's in it for the "thank you". No, we do it knowing that what we do is right and good for the most part. (I say 'most part' because believe it or not dispatchers are human, too, and make mistakes.) We do it because it's nice to send help to people and make a positive difference in the world each day, no matter how small. Some days are frustrating just as in any job. But at the end of each day there's at least one call or one dispatch that makes it all worthwhile. We also do it because no two days or calls are ever the same. One minute there's calm, the next minute it's chaos which is why Type A personalities thrive in a dispatch center.
I'm proud of what I do. I believe when I retire I'll be able to look back and smile at what I've done, the people I've met (though if only by phone) and the lives I've touched. It's amazing to me to think of the number of their lives that have touched me and will, in some small way, be with me forever.
I'm a 911 dispatcher and, as such, I get to see the worst of people along with the best of them and each day I get a view into all walks of life. Quite often I wonder what makes me tick in this field of work.....why do I do it and how does one survive consistently seeing the not so happy side of society? Some might say, don't take it personally. That's easier said than done and there's an art to doing so.
I know a lot of folks don't appreciate what dispatchers do. That's okay though because you'll probably never find a dispatcher who's in it for the "thank you". No, we do it knowing that what we do is right and good for the most part. (I say 'most part' because believe it or not dispatchers are human, too, and make mistakes.) We do it because it's nice to send help to people and make a positive difference in the world each day, no matter how small. Some days are frustrating just as in any job. But at the end of each day there's at least one call or one dispatch that makes it all worthwhile. We also do it because no two days or calls are ever the same. One minute there's calm, the next minute it's chaos which is why Type A personalities thrive in a dispatch center.
I'm proud of what I do. I believe when I retire I'll be able to look back and smile at what I've done, the people I've met (though if only by phone) and the lives I've touched. It's amazing to me to think of the number of their lives that have touched me and will, in some small way, be with me forever.
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