Do It Anyway

I have seen this poem before, most of the time via email.  Every time I see it I love it, so I thought I would post it here.

Do It Anyway

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today will often be forgotten.

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

Upcoming visit, another rejection, and new gadget on my blog.

Okay, on Friday my brother Gary will be here for a week-long visit.  I am excited about that.  He has never been here.  Carolyn and Erik will be here too (though Erik will only be here for a couple of days).  It will be fun to have a full house and for Gary to have a chance to get to know us for a while.  It's been hard on him, getting by since Vicki died.  They were together all the time and he is very lonely without her.  I hope that he has a good time getting together with his nieces and nephews and also his great niece and nephews.

I got another "thanks, but no thanks" from a job that I had put in for.  Gary (Oviatt this time) asked me if I was relieved or disappointed and I said both.  I really don't want a full time job, but I have to have five contacts a week to continue to receive unemployment benefits.  Even so, every rejection feels kind of personal, like there's something wrong with me or with my skills.  I would rather not get an interview than get one and then get the "you're not good enough for us" letter.  I am grateful for the unemployment money, but part of me will be relieved when it is exhausted because then I can stop putting in for these obligatory contacts and just do what I want to do.  Then I can just stay at home and if the perfect job becomes available, I'll put in for that and that alone. And if the Lord wants me somewhere, He'll clear the way for me to land there.  Until then, though, I put in my five contacts a week and endure the interviews, getting my ego smashed to smitherines when I am told that I am not what they are looking for.  :::sigh:::

Oh, and that new gadget on my blog?  It's over to the right, it's called "Susie's pictures."  I figured out how to do that all by myself.  I have added little pictures that I have received by email, from my phone, and on facebook.  Of course, there are a gazillion other pictures that I like but don't actually have handy.  But at least I have a few of my favorites here.  There is another gadget that I want to add, and Gary is going to help me one of these first days.  I want to add a tab or a new page or whatever that is actually nothing but recipes so that I can put in all those good things I cook that never made it into the ward cookbook because I found them AFTER the cookbook was published.  I might also add the best of what actually WAS put in the cookbook because a lot of what got put in there was put in wrong.  (stupid cookbook.)  Anyway, that way instead of trying to remember when I posted that lentil soup recipe, for instance, it'll just be searchable.

Fun plans for my blog.  :)

More things to consider...

1.       I think the freezer deserves a light as  well.  (Maybe more so, since it’s in the basement.)

2.       I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto"  routing option.  (same for my GPS.)

3.       I have a hard time deciphering the fine line  between boredom and hunger.  (Especially late at night)

4.       How many times is it appropriate  to say  "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or  understand a word they said?  (Wow, it’s not just me!)

5.       I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire  line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay  strong, brothers and sisters!  (It’s so TRUE!)

6.       Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants?  Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.  (True again.  I read an article that said jeans should not be washed the first time for six MONTHS.  And then only every three months after that.  Of course, I am assuming you own more than one pair…)

7.       Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3  consecutive times and still not know what time it is.  (Or in my case, my cell phone.)

8.       Even under ideal conditions people have  trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and  Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the  snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes  closed, first  time, every time.  (In my case, very easy. I just wave my hand in front of the clock for a snooze.  When I bought the clock I thought that was a good idea. Silly me.)

9.       The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1924. That means it only took 50 years for men to realize that their brain is also  important. 

Oh yeah, and then there's the blood sugar...

I forgot to mention the blood sugar.  I've noticed that my fasting blood sugar was inching up, and I was a little ticked off about that since I am actually at my lowest adult weight.  What's up with that?  Then when I was poking around online I saw some research that linked taking glucosamine for joint pain with higher blood sugar.  I've been taking glucosamine for probably nine months to try to get my joints to be a little less achey.  Anyway, I don't know if the research is conclusive or not but I poked around and found a vegetarian alternative to glucosamine for my joints that supposedly won't affect my blood sugar and I have noticed that my fasting blood sugars are back down to 100 or less, which is where they need to be.  And so far the vegetarian stuff works as well or better than the glucosamine.

Unfortunately, I'm also having a little more problems with rebound hypoglycemia.  I have always had to be careful not to let my blood sugar get too high because not only will I have the long-term health problems associated with that, I also have a tendency to crash afterwards.  Lately I've noticed the crashing has been worse, though, even when I don't eat "bad" stuff.  I can get a spike just from eating normal stuff, which means it looks like I'm getting more sensitive to various carbohydrates.  And the crashing can be kind of scary for me and people around me.  I probably should start carrying more snacky type things in my purse.  I used to be better about that but it wasn't a problem for a while so I got out of the habit.

My doctor said if I lost 20 more pounds we could probably remove the diagnosis "diabetes" from my record.  Somehow I don't think so.

Not a pirate killer

Okay, so I didn't get the pirate-killer job either.  I have had a few phone calls and interviews and tests and stuff for other jobs (one of which involved a HORRIBLE incident getting lost in downtown Denver where I wandered around for an hour and a half trying to find the testing location, you would think that the city would employ people who knew how to give directions or who at least spoke English as their native tongue if they were in an information booth, RIGHT?!?) but so far no calls.  I got my results back from my downtown Denver testing, and I got a 94.  Considering how upset I was at the time, I suppose that was better than nothing.  (You had to have 70 to pass.)  It was supposed to be a 2 hour test, but I finished in half an hour so I thought maybe I had done something wrong.  Apparently not.

I consider this "no job yet" a mixed blessing.  I am pretty satisfied with my life and staying home. Okay, to be more accurate, I feel positively spoiled rotten.  I love my life.  I get to keep the house clean and all the laundry done and cook as much or as little as I like. (Most of the time there is good stuff to eat around here.)  I get to bail Bridget out when she needs a ride to school and when that happens I kidnap Gary for a bonus date lunch (almost always Cafe Rio).  When friends call and want to do something I can do it.  I can help out when there is a need, like when a friend had to move with almost no notice.

For the most part, my day is as follows:  Get up, make bed, tidy room, and shower/dress.  Go downstairs, fix something to eat if I feel hungry, clean kitchen.  Do whatever chores I have decided I want to do, whether it's cleaning closets, experimenting with various ways to get carpeting cleaned, doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming (I love my dyson), and whatever else I think needs to be done.  After that I crochet while I watch something that I've recorded on TV or run errands or whatever.  Sometimes during the day Bridget might need a ride to school.  Occasionally Gary will have me do an errand or a job for him (typing up a resume for someone in the ward, something like that.)  The point is, the house gets cleaned often enough that if something comes up and I have to postpone working on it, it's okay because it's been done recently enough that it's not a disaster.  Oh, and in the summertime I add some outdoor jobs like watering flowers and vegetables, and mowing the front lawn.  I tried keeping up with the back lawn but that was too much for me last year.  I might give it a try again this year, though.  (I'm going to miss having my little watering buddy, Aidan, around.)

I am still getting unemployment.  I got six months' worth from the state and then the feds kicked in as an extension.  I don't know how much longer I'll get that.  In order to continue to get it, I have to have a minimum of five job contacts a week.  These can be interviews, applications, second contacts, etc.  I usually have more than five, but there are weeks when it's hard to find even five, so I'm glad that's all that is required.  When I was laid off last time (after 9/11) jobs were so scarce that the required contacts were reduced to 3.

So since I love my life so much, why do I consider it a mixed blessing that I have not yet found a job?  Well, I guess it's because I wonder why, if I am such a darn good secretary, no one wants me?  How come if I am as good as Gary seems to think I am (and whenever he compares me to someone his company has hired, he assures me that I could work circles around them) no one has jumped at the chance to employ me?  Whenever I get one of these "thanks, but no thanks" emails or letters, I breathe a sigh of relief, but I also think, "I wonder what's wrong with me."  Yeah, I also miss the paycheck, but it's not like we're starving to death.

I saw a job posting on United's web site for an admin position in Orlando.  It sounded like it was made for me but I wasn't eligible to put in for it because I am not yet technically retired (I can't be rehired till three months after my retirement) or else I would have applied.  Bummer.  Oh, and the fact that we still haven't finalized that  townhome.  :::sigh:::

Oh well.  Life goes on.