fear not, gentle readers, i'm still alive! things have been a little crazy over the past few weeks, but they've settled in again and i seem to be getting my groove back.
the first several months of this year have been filled with frantic projects at work. i work for an amazing company called imagine learning, which provides English language and literacy software to kids all across the world. (blog plug! check out our company blog here.) at the beginning of this year, i started turning in applications for my company to provide supplemental educational services (or SES) in a whole bunch of states. SES is after school tutoring provided to struggling low-income students at no cost to their parents. in order to be approved, the company has to go through a rather rigorous application process. i actually had a dream once that the application process was the same for every state in the US. unfortunately, it was only a dream. every state is different, and i have only run into one (one!) state who hasn't had something new on their application that i hadn't seen anywhere else. in all, i have written eighteen applications since the beginning of this year. two of those were reapplications that were approved and seven were brand spankin' new applications that were approved. the others are still pending, which means that so far none of my applications have been denied. (knock on wood!) i'm pretty darn pleased with that, i've gotta say.
in other news, i just returned from a trip to visit my grandmother in the tacoma area up in washington state. i haven't seen here in about five years, and it was wonderful to see her again. she's doing well and is still wonderfully sharp and fun to talk to. i've always had a particularly special connection to this grandma. we came from the exact same mold, i think. i look just like her (i mean... just like her to the point that it confused my grandfather when he was getting older). while i was up there, she had me go through her closet and take some of the old vintage clothes she wore way back when, when my mother was even younger than i am now. i nearly died, because vintage plus-sized clothes are basically impossible to find. i know this because i have looked. so i'd put on an outfit and come spinning into her room and pose for her. she said it was a huge flashback, since i look so much like her-- except she says i look better in her clothes than she ever did. (i doubt this very much, since she, in my mind, has always been an ultimate icon of beauty and class.) in addition to looking like her, i also seem to think an awful lot like her. we talked about some of the things we've both been through and whenever i said something she would give this slow, emphatic nod. yes, i understand completely. she shared some poetry that she'd written when she was younger, and it felt like it had been plucked from my own brain and put onto a page.
she said to me once, the last time i saw her, that even though i hadn't grown up near her and there were a lot of reasons for her to not know me very well, she did know me. she could look into me, and she understood every little thought i had and every part of me. that is something that i will carry with me forever. whenever i feel a little lost or like i'm crazy or that no one around me seems to understand what i'm feeling, i know that it's alright. this wonderful woman understands me. she's been there, and she's felt the same way. and she turned out pretty amazing, so i've gotta believe that i will, too.
this week's goals-- keep the apartment tidy, finish reading my latest literary conquest, keep this blog up to date, and try, desperately, not to spend money i don't have on groceries. (after spending time at pike place market in seattle eating delicious food and staring at delicious produce, reading recipes in real simple, and working my way through italy chapters of eat pray love, i want nothing more than to fill my house with delicious fresh food. and flowers. lots of flowers. sigh!)
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