I’ve been trying to be present for life in the now.
I have been weeding things out everyday to better organize my life, and feel happier.
So I’ve decided to take a little hiatus from my daily blogging.
Sorry. I just need a break.
Exercise at the gym and playing ping pong with my life partner, husband and best friend Jim makes me motivated to be a better woman.
At least it helps me get focused on creating a better home-life.
Hubby is fully retired now.
I still work, albeit part-time.
Although he is not currently employed, hubby works at home to make the place cooler (installing air-conditioning,) pitching in on chores with gardening, cooking and being my chauffer when we go out together. ❤
He is a helpful husband.
Even though we haven’t got any vacation plans until November, every day spent at home with hubby is like a vacation for me, especially when the weather is nice.
While growing up in the big city of Toronto was over-stimulating and fun, living in outstate Minnesota has its perks as well.
Fresh air, parklands, Farmer’s markets, a big fenced-in backyard, and ample free time to enjoy it all is great!
Hubby likes to keep current on the news.
I like to keep current on the birds at the bird-feeder, the local temperature, recent amounts of rainfall, and what to eat.
The signature of Benjamin Franklin is on The Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War with Great Britain
I just read a book on Benjamin Franklin, the statesman & inventor whose face is on the American 100 dollar bill.
It was a short little book produced by kappabooks.com, yet it was considerably informative.
B.F was a very wise & witty man
Some look at Mr. Franklin as a natural-born genius, and so do I!
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing.” Ben Franklin was a gentleman who practiced what he preached.
I recently watched a Ken Burns documentary on Ben Franklin. It was very good.
Born in 1706, Benjamin Franklin is still worth reading about, and if you travel to Philadelphia, you’ll find the Franklin Court and the Benjamin Franklin Museum.
These sites are part of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
I walked to the New Ulm public library on Monday morning to attend my first Memoir Writing meeting.
I saw my old friend, retired school teacher, Nancy Busse with her friend Jan.
Nancy and Jan
I listened to other people read or talk about their memoirs.
Tom and Benny
Tom is 95. He was born in 1927! Benny is a trumpet player who traveled with many popular dance bands!
Our Librarian/Technician spoke of the Memory Lab where you can preserve all your old photos, Lps, 18mm film and other memories on digital media for free!.
Librarian and Memory Lab Expert LeRoy Harris
If you want you can read my memoir I read to the group, here it is!
“The Distinguished Dropout,” by Amy Zents
When I was 15 years old I was fed up with school. I had desperately tried to be a good student, but to no avail. I was either tardy or absent. I even tried changing schools, going from an eilite collegiate high school to a few other not-so-elite ones.
Living in downtown Toronto I could not focus.Little did I know I had ADHD, and the stimulation of city-life overwhelmed my brain.At the time I could not understand why I couldn’t focus, and why I felt like such a failure.
After changing high schools to try and find the right fit, I quit school altogether and went to work.I kept changing jobs over and over again. I worked as a chambermaid, or housekeeper in downtown hotels Once while cleaning in the Sheraton, a guy claiming to be a Maple Leafs Hockey coach tried to pick me up stating his credentials. I just ignored his advances.
In my later teens, I worked in a fancy travel agency. Although I had no experience I was put in the Accounts Payable department located in the prestigious Toronto Star Building. The job was not for someone like me. The pay was excellent, but I made too many errors because math was not my strong suit.
For awhile I ventured into working in retail. I learned how to use a cash register, albeit poorly, and I had a locker. The job was so slow and so boring, I could not bear it, so I quit.
Later on, I worked at Sears in the mail room, where I delivered mail to the different departments. I felt invisible and degraded there for some reason.One day I saw an old lady lying flat on her back near the shoe department, and I alerted staff.. All they did was call the EMT’s while she lay there unconscious. She died at Sears.That incident upset me a lot, so I quit.
The last job, and the one I held the longest, was in catering and cafeteria food service at the Canada Life Insurance company. We served lawyers at their breakfasts, and banquets and each noon in their private dining room we filled their lunch orders that they checked off with a pencil from a daily menu.
At some point in my job search, I went to Canadian Man Power and took an employment aptitude test. The results showed my ideal job was a cook.Shortly before I got married, Man Power invited to pay for me to take a commercial cooking course. I declined.I was also contacted by the new IKEA store asking me come work for them.
There seemed to be a lot of employment opportunities for me in spite of my work record. But I chose to leave that all behind.
At the tender age of 19 I got married and left the big city for a small town in Northern Minnesota. After eight long miserable years living in Sauk Center, earning two dollars an hour babysitting, I finally realized that in order to get ahead, I needed to get my GED!
I learned to drive in a manual transmission car and it took me 3 tries to get my driver’s license at age 25, now I was ready to try to get a high school equivalency diploma.
I took classes at Melrose high school to review old subjects to prepare for my GED.I had to take the GED test in Alexandria, MN. I was so nervous, epecially since I remembered it took me three times to pass my driver’s road test. I hoped I would only need to take the GED test once and for all.
After the test, I waited to receive my notice in the mail, I was proud to find out I had passed!
Along with the verification that I had succeeded in getting my GED, was a special note.
It was a gold-embossed card that stated, “Congratulations to Amalia for Excellence in Adult Education.” I learned I had nearly perfect scores in all the areas of the test! I felt so amazed. I was a distinguished dropout!
Memoir resources were handed outPersonal experience is the ingredients of a good menoir
My only phenomena was surviving two car accidents in two months that totaled both cars!
When I graduated I had over 500 credits from my University spanning 14 years.
I took a double major in Music and in English, along with a number of other credits in subjects ranging from anatomy, science fiction, film studies, to sailing, theater arts, chemistry, horsemanship and many, many more classes.
I took morning, noon and night classes.
I attended classes Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer.
My thirst for knowledge was driven by the fact I dropped out of high school at age 15.
I was a non-traditional student who began college at age 29. When I graduated I was in my forties!
I would probably not come out on a nice day if I didn’t love my work.
Yesterday I worked from 130pm until 7pm.
It was girl’s softball on the FM all afternoon yesterday.
As I wheeled into the downtown area where my station is located on a glorious Saturday afternoon, I thought of the many storeclerks, volunteers and other workers who had to be indoors on such a spectacular day.
My boss would call it a Play Hooky Day.
Cheers to all the weekend workers again! You are all amazing! 👏
I went in the laundry room the day before wondering why there was so much water on the floor.
It was running through a wall.
I went to the back room to discover the water in the laundry room was nothing compared to the water on the floor in the back basement room, where the Internet modem is, along with numerous boxes and bins, old computer modems and old electronics. What a pain!
All those boxes and bins standing in 2 to three inches of water.
I mopped and mopped.
I finally had hubby turn off the water to see if it was leaky walls or a leaking pipe.
I phoned the plumber to see if they could squeeze me in on Friday.
They could not.
I spent hours and hours with hubby clearing out that wet storage room.
In desperation, I called the plumber again for a referral. He graciously obliged me with a referral.
A freelance plumber came out
He spotted the problem after awhile.
It turns the problem was pipe in the wall, where we had installed an outdoor faucet for the garden hose, had burst in winter. Never leave the water hose on in the freezing weather!
He replaced the pipe and so far all is well.
A replacement pipe.
Hopefully the problem is solved now.
It looks that way.
I’m very grateful for our local plumber’s referral, and the freelance plumber who was available yesterday to come over, spot and solve our problem!
Like Shakespeare says, “All’s well that ends well!
Zents Music Studio 