Helpful Neighbors

I'm glad the neighbors are concerned.  Really.  I'm planning to show my gratitude by playing loud celebratory music at 2 am.  Yes, that means that I will have to be up at 2, but really, for such helpful people I'm willing to go to some effort to demonstrate my appreciation. 

Can you tell I'm a LITTLE bit cranky?

I came home yesterday to two agitated kids.  It seems that about 5:00 a policeman came to our door to check and see if my kids felt okay with being alone.  Some neighbor, desiring to be helpful (and I believe that like I believe that herpes is a good thing) called the police and reported me for leaving a "barely six year old" at home alone every afternoon.  So if my neighbor is reading this, allow me to correct your impressions of a couple of things. 

• First of all, sending the police to my house without ever having spoken to me about your concerns isn't just rude, it's aggressively bad mannered. 
• Next on the list, having the police show up could have been traumatic if we were talking about any kid other than Tucker.  He was just disappointed that the policeman didn't appear to have "handcuffs on his butt, like all REAL policemen are supposed to have." 
• Thirdly, if you'd asked me, even as an aside in a friendly conversation, you could have known that Tucker isn't 6.  He's almost 10.  Yes, you could have saved yourself from looking like a total ass. 
• Fourthly, if you had checked with the department of Social Services, or even looked it up on the internet, you could have known that in Colorado there is no arbitrary age at which it is either okay or not okay for a child to be a "latchkey" kid.  The standard here is the comfort of the child, does he know what to do, can he reach Mom in case of an emergency, does he know how to call 911, is there food in the house ...

Because when the policeman came by, he found two well-behaved and obviously comfortable kids in their home doing laundry.  When I called to speak with the dispatcher, she read me the report. 

"At ..... I found two males, one 9.5 and the other 12 years in age.  The boys were confident answering questions regarding their safety and demonstrated ability to call for help if needed.  There is no reason to further investigate this home.  Either child is competent to be alone for a couple of hours in the afternoon and together they are doing the laundry.  This officer did not ask to enter the premises or investigate the kitchen because it was obvious that they are in a comfortable, safe place and are well-fed."

It's the well-fed part that makes me really smile.   

I got paid yesterday for a job I did over the summer.  It started as something that should have been a quick and easy slam dunk to help a friend, and it turned into a nightmare for us both before it was over, but it's over.  And at the end of the day I made certain that my friend got exactly the service and help that was needed.  I feel good about my performance, but I learned that I will NEVER work with a certain company again. 

SO - last night I took the boys shopping.  We deposited more than half my check in savings, wrote a check to pay a bill for which the creditor has been more than patient in waiting, and then we shopped.  The kids each got new jeans.  (Which reminds me that I need to do some hemming on Tucker's ...) 

Michael also wanted new music.  He called my attention to the fact that he's outgrown much of the "kid" music he has been listening to.  He wanted songs by All American Rejects, Nickelback, and Rascal Flatts.  Okay, we can do that.  Tucker was more interested in a certain Pokemon game for his Game Boy Advanced system.  Okay, okay, I can do that too.  And then we went to Chili's for dinner!  It was extravagance upon extravagance.  This morning I'm wishing that I'd spent a little less, but I got nine pairs of jeans, two cd's and a video game plus dinner for about $200.  

I'm on my way out this morning to buy a bookshelf.  I have arranged and rearranged and stacked and sorted and there is no way I can get these other two boxes of books on the shelf space I have available as is.  I've lived with stacks of boxes in the corner for two years, I'm done with that.   

I'm considering leaving the kids alone here, just to thumb my nose at the nieghbor, but I need them to help me carry the box, so I guess I'll have to forgo that opportunity.  But come 2 am, I'm thinking it might be a good time to test out Michael's stereo and the new music to see if it improves my mood the way I think it might. 

PS - I'll be hitting up the post office as I'm heading out, I have my fingers crossed that the books are here.  I'll let you know when I get them in the mail.

PS. I'm not as cranky as I sound, not now that I've got it all off my chest. 

Another Book ...

I have another book I've been working on at work.  The rough draft is due to my boss tomorrow and as of this point I still have at least another whole chapter that I haven't even started writing.  But I'm excited about this project.

It's a book on Financial Literacy.  All my ideas on the ways and means of managing your money. 

You know this is a passion of mine, I'm a little fanatical on the subject.    SO the project has been ideal for me.  If this is taken through to the end as I envision it, it will be both a book and a curriculum.  (I think we need to print both versions)  The curriculum would be a set of modules that the student would receive one at a time.  So instead of getting a thick book to work through, the student will get a packet of no more than about 12 pages per lesson. The lessons will then go into a three ring binder, but at no time will the student be given an overwhelming amount of material.

After this one is completed, we are also looking at the development of a family curriculum that would offer ideas, "this is what the kids need to know about money at age 6, 9, 12, 15 ..." and so forth.  This curriculum would include games, activities, and suggestions for how parents can teach their children about money.   

So that's what i'm doing.  I'm writing. 

I don't know how these money books will be made available.  Whether they would be materials that could be ordered from my organization or whether they would be "in-house" materials that we would use just in our program.  (I kind of don't see my boss passing up the opportunity to market these things, so I expect that one way or another they will be available.)

My question:  TITLE!!!  I need at least a working title for this thing. 

I am using a lot of the material from the book that I started last February and the working title on that was "Maggie MacFrugal's guide to living well on nickels and dimes."  I know - it's wordy.  My best friend calls me Maggie MacFrugal whenever we talk about money, and I love that.  But, I've taken Maggie MacFrugal out of this version of the book because she wasn't quite the tone I'm going for.

Any suggestions?  What can I title this book?

If it helps some of the chapter topics are:

dreams, goals, attitudes

finding money to save

love and money

knowing the score (about credit reports)

consumer culture

drive yourself happy (car buying)

the roof over your head (house buying)

the end of the day (saving for retirement)

just in case (insurance)

money that works for you (investing)

And if you haven't seen the notice below, please notice that my poetry book, Hidden in Plain Sight, is now AVAILABLE!!!!

Happy Dance!!!!!

http://www.shadowpoetry.com/bookstore/hiddeninplainsight.html

My Book is Available! 

I know some of you have already let me know that you want a copy.  I am only getting 50 author copies up front and it looks like they are mostly spoken for already, but if you want one autographed, please let me know.  I still have about 12 left at this point.  If you aren't SURE whether your copy is reserved, message me again!  I think I've responded to everyone who asked for one. 

Thank you, Dan.  Dan Tharp pushed and prodded and poked and said, "Come ON Girl, WRITE!" until I had a book.   If you don't know him, he's a wonderful poet here on Xanga.  Thank you, Kevin.  Kevin is another wonderful poet who deserves far more recognition than he seeks.  He graciously gave me permission to use one of his poems in the book because his poem inspired one of my own.  (His may be better but we're gonna pretend that mine doesn't disgrace itself in comparison.)

If you order from the website, the book is $6.95 plus shipping.  If you requested a copy from me, I'm not charging you shipping because I get a discount as the author. 

This morning I woke to the sound of a plane coming in to the airport only a few miles away.  Yesterday, my kids asked me about 9/11.  I answered their questions.  And I told them about the days after when the sky was quiet.  I told them about the way I felt.  Five years ago, they were too young to ask and I didn't know what to say to them.  But yesterday, I told them, and I wept.  Today, I feel very quiet.  And I remember the empty sky. 

I would walk 500 miles
and I would walk 500 more
just to be the man who'd walk 1,000 miles
to fall down at your door ...

Hung out with kids, did housework, grocery shopped a little, worked a little, napped a little and then we watched Benny and Joon. 

Last week I watched Antonio and was inspired to poetry.  Johnny Depp inspires me ... to watch more Johnny Depp.  So I'm putting the kids to bed, and I'm gonna watch Chocolat ... sigh

Can you hear me now?

If it's true that laughter keeps you healthy, everyone who knows my sister, Cheryl, oughtta have a lower rating for life insurance.  I just talked to my sister til I was down to the last sliver of the last bar on my cell battery, and I could have stayed on the phone longer. 

"... so remember that day when Mom and Dad were at your place and my baby called and asked, "Aamaw, when are you coming home?  Will you make me pancakes?"  I just don't see why a little kid would complain about getting rice krispie bars with Pepsi.  When I was a kid I'd have killed for a breakfast like that.  But are these kids grateful?"

I was telling her about the new church and the new Bible study group and all the new activities in my life.  ((I've taken a liking to living on the edge.  For example: Tuesday night I'll be bowling with the boss, and I'm taking Michael and Tucker.))  SO there's this one more group I've been asked to join.  It's called Women of Courage and it's a group for single moms.  I visited them on Mother's Day weekend and it really is an awesome group.  But they have these ... rules.

You have to be working, trying to improve your financial standing, not dating anyone, diligent in disciplining your children ... and you have to promise to feed them nutritious meals.  I was doing okay until I got to that one.  I looked over at Tucker who was totally enjoying his frito-chili-pie and I realized that this MIGHT be the group for me to skip.  At least for tomorrow.

I already joined a Bible study group.  And the material looks to be awesome.  It's a study written by Beth Moore.  Beth is an interesting person.  She grew up in Arkadelphia which is just a few miles down the road from where I grew up in Malvern.  We have a lot of shared experiences and are the same age.  I bought the video set and studied the first material that Beth Moore authored for LifeWay and it was an awesome study.  (it's called "A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place" - it's still available and I highly recommend it.)

The new study is called "The Patriarchs" and I expect another fascinating study.  For people who have an ... unholy ... reverence for "scripture" The Patriarchs are a call to reality.  These people who are described as the family from whom God would make a nation and reveal SPIRIT to the world ... these people were the most dysfunctional people in any body of literature anywhere.  From drunken debauchery, lying, theft, polygamous marriages, incest, murder, ... have I left anything out?  These were not the kind of people you'd want living next door.  But these are the chosen people. 

Kind of makes me feel like if God could see a way to get things done with that crowd, maybe I'm not a lost cause either.  It's an interesting group of women who've come together for this study.  Mostly they are much younger in faith than I am.  Some of them only found their way into the church in the last year or two.  All but two or three of them weren't sure where to find the Bible verses under discussion.  None of them have the "head knowledge" that I bring.  And it makes me feel ... odd. 

There are a lot of ways in which I envy them.  They seem so innocent.  They are all so sure that if they read the book every day, and come to church on Sunday that bad things won't happen to them.  I could tell them that bad things WILL happen.  And the bad things will be bad enough that some of them will think that God doesn't love them, never loved them.  And they will be angry.  Some of them will walk out and never come back, because finding God isn't like finding a magical teflon shield - no matter how much warm and fuzzy they feel right now. 

But some of them will find their way through, and find their way back. 

Some of them will be like my sister.  Coming to terms with being a Pepsi and rice krispie Mom in a whole wheat and yogurt world.  Some of them will be just like her as she's trying to find her way through a minefield of health problems and enough life issues that she could share them around and still have a plateful.  And if they are lucky, they will find their way back because they will have discovered that one of the names of God means "laughter".  And they will know the lesson of the Patriarchs.  God doesn't waste a lot of time with the people who don't have need.  God shows up where things are a mess. 

At least, that's the way I see it. 

Blah Blah Blah

I'm not feeling so well today.  I wish I were feeling better, but well, I'm not.  It's amazing how just being a little under the weather can totally drain me of energy, motivation, and ability to get anything done.  But I'm going to work, so I'd better find a way to push through that. 

The good news is that today is payday.  I'll put my check aside in savings because I'm not sure whether my job is going to be permanent, and if it goes away, I want to make sure I have enough to cover my rent for a couple of months while I'm looking. 

I had a car scare earlier this week.  Was driving along and something went Ker-chunk-chunk-chunk under the front end.  This car has had some ... bad experiences with it's front end.  I immediately thought of the incident two years ago when the woman in the SUV backed over my hood and my fear was that part of my frame had broken. 

But no.  It was a support for the transmission dragging the ground.  The Ker-chunk happened RIGHT by the garage I prefer to use for maintenance.  I mean SO right by that it was the closest parking lot to pull off the street into.  The part to repair it was less than $20 and with labor and everything it only cost $60.57.

That's less than the cost of a two day car rental while I waited for them to get it done.  Could have been a LOT worse. 

But it underlined for me just how far I haven't come in my quest to be in a position where I take such things in stride.  I worried myself almost sick trying to figure out what I was going to do if my car needed a major repair.  My little savings account took a serious hit this summer when I was getting moved into my new place.  I can't afford many more hits. 

(My office mate has left the company, so I got to move to the bigger desk and inherited the computer with speakers.  Now I can listen to music while I work instead of listening to the voices from the call center outside my door.)

PS - did I tell you that my new assignment at work is to write a book/curriculum on money management? 

PPS - did I also tell you that my poetry book is going to the printer this week?  I only ordered 50 author copies.  SO if you'd like to have an autographed copy of "Hidden in Plain Sight" by Terri Verrette ... (doesn't that sound NICE!)  Please leave me a comment in the messages with your information.  The cover price is $6.95 and since I got a discount, I can offer them to you at that price plus only $.50 for postage. 

Labor Day Weekend in Colorado Springs

We didn't go to the balloon glo tonight.  The boys and I had a good day, reconnected with some old friends and maybe even made new ones.  After dinner, we watched, "Take the Lead" - mostly because I don't care what Antonio Banderas does, as long as I get to watch, and listen to that lyrical voice.  That man is hot.  And watching him in a movie about dancing?  Well, it made me want to sign up for foxtrot and rhumba immediately.  It also made me think of an idea for a poem.  I know, I don't usually post poems on this site, but I've neglected my poetry site for so long that I'm not sure anyone would see it if I posted it there, and I kind of like this one. 

This is totally an "inside" joke kind of poem.  I don't expect it to win applause, but it was fun to write.  One of the dance couples in the film is a young man everyone calls "mountain" and a young woman who feels like she has two left feet.  They start off with the awkward attention to exactly matching the beat and the pattern set by the instructor.  But as they learn to relax and trust each other, something entirely else happens. 

Ballroom

"I don't dance," said the man
with his hand on my hip
"I've no rhythm no grace
and my foot's prone to slip.
Look at me," he said, looking 
but not at my eyes.
He assumed I'd agree,
no one danced when his size.

Bodies
move, touch,
sway, sweat
walk, bend, lift
turn and look back.
They slide into focus
and reach for the place
heat wavers like air
over pavement
in the desert.

"It's okay, you don't have too,"  
I answered while swaying
"We'll stand here and share
just a moment of saying,
The things that we say only
when we are touching
outside of the words
that we're always rushing
to say one more time
before time has run out
with your hand on my hip
you won't have to ..."

Step, forward
back, side side side
lean

and twist
say
again
we can't dance

poems pull my left leg
make my arm light
quick skip in my belly, gasp
through fire writing a song
in blue ink, on my skin

Turn, slide, slide, slide
I'm me, no I'm you, no I'm
somewhere that there's never been
I before. 

You don't have to dance
as long as you move

like

that.