Outside the Pigeon Holes

I am taking a class called a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) through a website called Coursera . Coursera MOOCs are taught by major universities in the United States and abroad - and they are FREE! If you enjoy learning I recommend checking out what they have to offer. The subject areas range from arts to history to engineering and trigonometry. Really, go check it out. It's a treasure trove for learning addicts like me. So, anyway, the class is called 'Creativity, Innovation and Change' which is taught by faculty from Penn State University. Its focus is to help you discover your creative style (everyone is creative - creativity is not limited to the arts and humanities!) and offers strategies for beginning and following through with innovative ideas. One of my favorite exercises was Life Ring. It is explained in detail in the book 'Center - A system of 6 practices for pursuing your passions and purpose in self, family, work and community'  - you can get this bo...

    Come along with us on our vacation! This is Rocky, our tour guide. He reminded us that it was acceptable to follow off-route squirrels on our trip. We didn't find any official squirrels along our first leg of the journey, but there was this cute little doughnut shop next to Speedway where we stopped for snacks. Our room at Maumee Bay State Park Lodge (near Toledo) had a lovely lakefront view. These photos were taken from a quaint little bench beneath a weeping willow tree just in front of our balcony.  The Lodge was beautiful - You can see an exterior shot of the lodge  here.   We were greeted in our room by this cute, snuggly frog. We thought he was a nice little extra...He came with a card that explained why Toledo is known as 'Frogtown'. He was ours to enjoy and even take home! (and a $12.99 fee would conveniently be added to our bill upon checkout). ..Oh, well. We left him for the next guests to enj...

It wouldn't have been my first pick for things to do with my summer break, but duty called. America may be flawed (what country isn't??) but I would not want to live anywhere else, so I don't mind being summoned to serve my time in the courts of the US. I was apprehensive about the way it would go. It seemed big and scary (and darn it, I don't want to get up early in the summer!). Now that I am on day two, I am finding that as long as ya have enough stuff to do, it's not a bad gig. At least so far...And BONUS - my friend and sister in Christ, Theresa also has jury duty!! I figured I would chronicle my time for memory's sake and in case any of the thousands of readers of my blog (ha!) ever wondered what it was like. Sorry, I can't give any details of cases that I may hear, but I can share about my experiences in the pool! Day 1 - Monday 8:00am - I hate driving and parking downtown! But I was able to find a lot next door for $7. I decided against my...

Funny how when you step out of comfort zones you get...well...uncomfortable! Saturday and Sunday were kinda weird...I worried alot. I second guessed a lot...I imagine I'll have lot of that until I get my full grown Eagle's wings... :) Saturday I saw my girlies at Zen and Now...Theresa and Tracy played "Guido" and got the decree signed for me because I didn't really feel like dealing with the ex - we always end up arguing. I hate that...Harmony is one of my top 5 strengths. Disharmony eats away at me. And I'm not in a place where I can yet let go of my irritation. Planning to maybe take care of that tonight at Monday group - a little clean-up mini-sozo - offering up forgiveness in the presence of supportive friends. Hopefully one day we'll have peace with each other. We're both good people at heart. We just aren't good together. I took the puppers to the dog park yesterday afternoon. Sometimes I forget to appreciate them. They are such blessings...I...

It all began Friday night. My friend Jim was playing piano at The Syndicate. I had a couple of friends who were going to go with me to see him. But they were called away by cleaning duty at home. So I was left wondering if I should journey down to the piano bar alone. That's when Paul said: "Carpe Diem...You should go". ...So I did. And had a wonderful evening. Jim played at this huge white Grand Piano which made me think of my beloved Barry Manilow. :) He was taking requests so I asked for "Desperado". I love that song and it brings back a wonderful memory I have of riding in a convertible with Allen across the California desert back in the 90s. Following that someone (not me, I swear!) requested "Mandy" by Barry Manilow. So Jim sang that one and then went right into another Manilow tune "Could it be Magic" - one of my favorites. I listened to the music while writing a letter to Gina - my oldest and dearest friend. I also talked to Jesus for...

A friend of mine said this to me last night and I don't think he realized when he said it that it would become something so meaningful. I am going to take the rest of the summer to walk out this concept of seizing the day. I have lived a life of fear and in recent years God has been ridding me of it. I have stepped into things that I never would have before without analyzing and hyper-spiritualizing it to the point of paralysis. What I have learned quite clearly in recent days is that you can follow all the 'rules' and the 'they says' and still end up flat on your ass. So I have been taking the bull by the horns a lot more than I used to and it has been great! I have scraped my knees a few times and taken a horn in the gut more than once. But it beats sitting on the sidelines worrying. I used to think that living life this way was ungodly...I mean, what if you make a mistake? What if you do something bad? What if...What if...What if..? Well, WHAT IF??? What if God...

We bought a Trikke at a yard sale yesterday...Cool! Wow! Fun! Party! They're a good $500 new. We got it for $35! I can't wait til I can look like this dude as I race around on it like a pro. :) For now I am relegated to going up and down on my street trying to master the motion I need to keep it going after the momentum from the decline runs out. The training video says that you have to use some sort of punching motion with the handle bars. At this point I pretty much look like I'm desperately trying to keep it from tipping over (which it actually doesn't do. It stands on its own and doesn't wobble or tip). The neighbor's 4 cats were all standing on the porch and the lawn staring at me condescendingly as I practiced this morning. They'll all be cowering in the corner when I'm doing wheelies on their lawn! That'll show 'em! But first I gotta get it moving!...I need to find some tough turf kids who know about these things...Hey, Melanie, is Jo...