The fiscal cliff, Republican obstruction, and yoga

Somewhere in there, there's gotta be a theme!!

So, the fiscal cliff: it's a speed bump. I love how the media dramatizes everything. Even supposing (shocking, I know) that McConnell et al refuse to bargain and everything goes flushing, those cuts are phased in over FIVE YEARS. Five years. That's 1,825 days.

You're not gonna wake up and magically have your taxes raised and the economy in the toilet. It's available out there, folks - just read.

Republican obstruction: Like that's news? McConnell and the bunch need to realize that mid-terms are coming up and the American people (those who voted in this landslide election, remember??) are fed up with the divisive nature of politics. They're sick of seeing everything stuck because someone's having a hissy fit. So Prez Obama won a second term. Yes, he did, and yes I voted for him.

Y'all need to get over yourselves.

Yoga: I got to sub and teach my first yoga class last week!! How fun it was - and how nerve-wracking. I've been practicing for at least 7 years or so. But getting up in front? That was a bit scary. Luckily, the students took it easy on me and I had a practice that was fairly benign. No backbends; no pretzel poses.

I'm looking forward to teacher training in 2013 and hoping that after it's all done I have a place to teach. Just part-time. But I want to do this. I think I have something to offer.

Weirdness is Getting Weirder...

Life has been very weird lately. The confluence of events is very odd and I'm beginning to wonder more and more.

Not about my own sanity. But about the fact that I may very well be the only sane person left in the room!

I have two friends who are suffering with melanoma. Two. One male, one female. The female is now in Hospice care, and we know how this is going to end. The male is "not doing well" - which is kind of what I expected because he found out very late in the game, after it had spread.

So the male, I'm in contact with via "How are you" and "I'm praying for you" notes because we work together. We're friends but in a professional capacity. He was my professor and now that I work at the university, he has classes in my facility, so we're "work friends" and he's one of my favorite instructors.

The female I'm closer to on the basis of "being a friend." We hold totally opposite political beliefs, she's a smoker and a "we love to camp in the summer" person, who is a total sun-bunny. I'm a vehement anti-smoker, a liberal-Birkenstock-wearing-tree-hugger, hates-to-camp kind of person. I'm pale. I go from pale to "burned" in about 20 minutes WITH sunscreen!

But we bonded in a true friendship where we honor our differences. And I cherish that. We are the same age. I'm sad that I'm losing a friend at my own age.

That being said, she owned the yarn shop where I used to hang out. I actually still hang out there, because the new owner is a nice woman keeping up the yarn community that my friend started. And she's running a small business...I'd rather buy my yarn and other knitting stuff there - giving a local business run by a woman my dollars, instead of a big-box (which also has crappy yarns, but I digress).

There are a group of knitters, who lately I've begun referring to as "The Knot-Heads" because at least one of them (maybe two) is displaying an enormous amount of immaturity. Yes, we all mourn differently. We all have that right, based upon what we've grown up with, our personalities and how we handle life's curveballs.

But this gal ("Audrey") is taking the "it's all about MEEEEEEEEEEE" thing so far that I'm ready to just scream. There's another person in the group who is very verbal and outgoing to the point of also kind of being a "me, me, me" person, but deep down, "Jessica" has a heart of gold and will do whatever she thinks will help you. My friend is in Hospice, for God's sake. She doesn't need a "friend" who is determined to out-mourn the rest of us. Nice phrase, huh? Well, it describes a person who is determined to be the one who cries the most, gets hysterical the most, inserts herself in the family's way the most....all the while actually doing nothing for anyone except creating chaos.

Which is the last thing this family needs. Do I always agree with what my friend's husband has done and the decisions they've made? Nope.

Is it my duty or right to say so? Nope. Nope. N-O-P-E. Absolutely frickin' not. I don't care if they brought in a witch doctor to do a rain dance and hang seaweed and entrails around her bed. Well, I care, but the point is, it's not my decision and not my place to tell them what to do.

So, "Audrey," one of the "Knot-Heads" has decided that she's in charge. And my friend's mom is so focused on what's in front of her -- her daughter dying -- that she can't see what's going on with this person. She's also a perennial "everyone is a nice person" kind of gal, till you cross her. My object is to make sure she doesn't have to be crossed, because let's face it -- your kid dying trumps just about anything else that happens to anyone else. In other words, "Audrey" has no right to impose herself in this situation with anyone. "Audrey" needs to grow up and get over herself. Fast.

"Audrey" got mad at me because I went over to visit. She won't, however, confront me. She'll leave others to do this - which I found out by phone calls (lots of them) from "Jessica." Which really doesn't bother me. Squeal away, kiddo. Knock your socks off. One thing I've learned is to "act like a duck" and let it roll off your back. If it won't materially hurt me, why do I waste my energy on this?

I was talking to my mom, though, because she's friends with the mom in this situation.... like a 30+ year friendship. My mom, even though she drives me insane sometimes, is a great anchor. She totally will handle your situation; talk you through it; hand you tissues.... and then after it's all over, will fall apart. I'm pretty much a carbon copy of that. I'll handle what you toss at me; I'll do everything except hold your head while you barf (because I'm a community barfer); give you advice if you want it, or just hold your hand if you need that; and then when it's over, I'm done and I fall apart.

So, I've been asked by "Jessica" to come with her when she visits our friend this coming Monday. "Audrey" is peeved (to put it mildly) and "may just run out there Friday." I felt compelled to talk to my mom because I'm at a loss; not that I don't know how to handle it, because I know how *I* want to handle it. But I wanted some advice from my mom on whether to do anything or how to do it without overstepping into the bounds of the family.

My mom is going to talk to her friend and just give her a head's up because she also believes that "Audrey" is a person who has no boundaries and that the family is the ultimate arbiter of how they handle this journey. Nobody else.

I've told my mom, "Please make your friend understand: I don't care if they all call me and vent on me. It's better to do it to me than to your friend!! She doesn't need this." But what I don't want is to have her friend think that I'm an instigator of the school-girl crap. I believe she knows me well enough, so I don't think that'll be an issue. I also think my mom's in a better position to let her friend know that there may be drama. I think "forewarned is forearmed" in this case.

I hate this crap. I'm devastated that I know two people who're suffering with this awful cancer. I've actually made a dermatologist appointment for myself - which may be a good thing, if I'm more aware...but it's scary. And I really don't want to have to be the only sane person in the room.

But I think that if you are that person, you just are. You just have to deal with it, I guess, and you have to realize that maybe this is your gift to the family. Your presence is calming, hopefully, and you are doing something useful. I've never been a "weeper and moaner" and I can't see myself doing that now.

I'll hold it together. I'll help do what I need to do. But I'll still want to smack "Audrey" (and really, "Jessica" too because please........ everyone grow up!). I'm telling' ya. If you're gonna be the only sane person in the room, you have to cultivate a great poker face. I'm still working on that!

I'm D-O-N-E!!!

Last night was The Night. We had our presentation and got our grades.

And I need to vent a little bit.

There were 3 groups presenting, and we were lucky (thank you, St. Thomas Aquinas, patron saint of students, and St. Bridgid of Ireland, the other one!) to be able to go first. As we were setting up, B, one of our group members, asked the prof how long we had, and the prof said, "Oh, about 40 minutes." Well...T in our group had asked that question the night of our "final" which was thinly disguised as a "mid-term" exam and we were told "about 1 hour." So that's what we planned. Since we had so few groups presenting, we figured, heck with it. We did our hour. That included a 20-minute video segment of W in our group, since W was absent due to a job interview -- and in this market, Lord knows you just go to the interview, and we make do with what we need to do to get our presentation off the ground.

Luckily, Hubby was able to videotape W and B was able to get that into the presentation. I'm tellin' ya - it was slick! It was funny, because we talked about what to wear, and it ended up we all did "office fancy" --- and T and I nearly wore the same top, which would've been funny, since we'd have looked like Tony Orlando and Dawn... But both of them, B and T, are too young to know who those people are. Ahhhhhhh, youth.

We did our presentation and it went well. There were no typos on our slides (of course), and the majority of our slides had a "hook" to them, if you were paying attention, that related to the subject being presented. We all looked at our audience and only briefly noted the slides on the screen behind us.

We were peer-graded, plus the instructor. The other two groups (here's where the rant comes in) did their presentations in less time than we did, though the second group did do about 45 minutes - they had one less person in their group, so that made sense.

But....(cover your ears, here's the rant - or at least Part A of the rant) they had typos on at least 50% of their slides. Both of the other groups. And several times, they read from the slides. With their bodies partially turned toward the screen.

OK, I'm picky. This is the last class in your MBA. You're an adult student. That presumes that at some time, somewhere, you've had to speak in public. It also presumes that somewhere along this track, you've had a communications class or two, and you've done small group work in other classes, and presented in front of at least a class-sized group. And you may have had to use a PowerPoint presentation. You need to spell-check them. Twice. At least. And please don't read to us. We can all read, I hope, by this time.

Part B of the rant: Today, I heard that one of the people in one of the other groups was "mad" at us, and put that complaint onto FaceBook because "we graded poorly."

Well, your presentation was poor, and if it was mine to do, there'd have been extra points taken off for "reading to the screen" and "typographical errors." Look, I know everyone's human and there are people who are petrified of public speaking, but by this time - again - you should either have had a chance to rehearse or you should be a little more adept at faking being able to do it well.

I talked to W in our group, and explained my objections. Met with agreement. It's not that I'm overly-exacting, though I am. It's that I expect a certain amount of professionalism at this level. We had a bloop in one of our video pieces; you just move on. Like when I flub a chord --- I've learned that people notice it less if you keep going. When you stop dead in your tracks, they kinda notice that the music isn't playing!

W says that it might be that the other groups "wanted to do the bare minimum." And if that's so, my grading of their presentations reflected that. If my work and the work of my team is "A" level, then I demean my efforts and those of team by giving a sub-par group an "A" grade.

Anyway, it's done. The book will be resubmitted (it's in proof stage right now) and will be ready for sale shortly. The instructor stopped dead at my desk and picked up our book, saying "Wow, this is gorgeous!" Yay!!!

So now, I can concentrate on some freelance gigs that I've got, I can knit and I have to find something else to do with my Tuesday nights. My mother says I'm "much more human" and not as cranky. She mentioned something about tossing raw meat to me during the class, but I told her today that like as not - I'd probably have whipped it back to her!!

Off to go see what the weather is doing. Supposed to be a winter storm watch, but so far, nothing but cold.