Celebrate All the Things! Happy Half Birthday to Me

This Thursday marks 28 years since my sister Hilda passed on from this earth. Last week while my daughter and I were cleaning my upstairs room we found an old card she gave me. I was 24 when she wrote these words to me. She was 41 and was diagnosed with leukemia four months later.

What a great reminder from her that I need to keep working on my fitness and eating right. What got me was the "Love you always and forever" part. It reminded me of the quote, "Love transcends time and space." Thank you Hilda for the reminder!

I'm going to wear her earrings on August 10 to celebrate her spirit. In her 30s and 40s she always wore big loud earrings, bright colors and cool shoes. I told myself years ago that I would celebrate every year that I live past 42, the age she was when she passed away and I can't lose sight of that promise. I recently told a friend that we have to #celebrateallthethings, because she wasn't acknowledging her victories, and I need to practice that too. 

Me wearing Hilda's earring in 2016. 

This week is also my half birthday. Tomorrow on Friday the 11th I'm halfway to 54 and it's the time of year when I review my goals and how I'm doing. It's also a good excuse to celebrate!

If I choose to concentrate on the positive I can say that I've gotten a lot of things done lately. I cleaned out half of my garage and I finally cleaned out the extra bedroom upstairs with the help of my children and my son's good friend. I'm getting my son's doctor's appointments done before he has to go back to school in New York in September. 

I finally got my mammogram and extra ultrasound done and I had all my yearly physicals. All is looking good across the board, from my breasts, to my cholesterol, A1c level, and heart. I've even dropped 16 pounds in a year, which is always a win. 

I've made a morning meditation a daily habit, but I will have to revise my overly ambitious goal of either 400 or 500 Peloton rides by 54. I'm thinking that what sounds more realistic and cool is 354 rides and strength workouts by 54. #354to54 is being sensible. 

I've also done a good job of editing my novel right before each Central Nebraska Writing Group meeting, so I can read for the group at our bi-monthly meetings. Goal is to have a portion done for each meeting, so I can have the whole book edited in approximately 9 more months or less. It's a marathon, not a sprint and I want to do it right this time. 

On another note, at my day job of selling advertising and doing my part to defend the free press... I'm so happy that I can bring my whole self to work and that I can follow things I'm passionate about. We have an awesome DEI training called Hearst Conscious Inclusion and when we complete the training we become "Change Agents." I'm now working with a group called "Change Agents in Action." I'm leading a group of Hearst employees from other divisions and our focus will be on external projects for Women's Rights. I can't wait to see the work we all do and I'm so grateful for the opportunity! I was also asked to do something else, but more to come later. 

In my little libraries world. I am so happy to report that an organization is donating two bookshelves for my little libraries and a local art organization wants to paint them for me. I'm so excited to see what they do! 

In my historic cemetery world. I'm looking for a corporate sponsor who will do matching donations for Giving Tuesday for the Historic McDaniel Street Cemetery. If you know of anyone who is passionate about historical cemeteries send them my way!

Life is definitely not boring and I have a lot to keep me busy. I'm grateful to be making it to 53 and a half and let's see what I can accomplish in the next six months. #354to54

Updates and Random Things

1. I changed jobs in the middle of this Pandemic and shocked everyone. I left the Chronicle on June 10 and started working at Houston Public Media at UH on June 15, selling corporate sponsorships. I'm really excited to learn about radio, tv and especially public media. I've been very passionate about HPM for a while now and I'm thrilled to be part of an NPR station. As always Portada magazine is awesome about announcing my moves.

2. My Little Libraries in Laundromats movement is continuing. I have a website, I was on the Nuestra Palabra radio show promoting it. 

3. I've been journaling again and it feels good. Honestly, having kids and then having this blog, and recording our life on Facebook affects my personal writing and also saving photos. They all live on FB and Instagram now!

4. I've been thinking about my thesis too and I always think about revisiting that subject and writing about it twenty years later, with all my added real-life experience. I'm thinking about reading through it, retyping it (because who are we kidding, I have no idea where that electronic file is) and within each example that I give, backed up by research, inserting a real life example from the years I've spent in Corporate America. I think that would be an interesting exercise. The topic of my thesis was gender in communication, specifically when we enter an organization.

5. Now that I'm working at UH I'm interested in teaching a class as a lecturer and I've gotten the ball rolling for the future, after this pandemic and when we go back to a somewhat normal life again. I realize that may be a few semesters but that's okay, I need the time to learn my new job anyway. 

6. I'm back in the saddle again with my Peloton now that my toe issues are behind me. I continue to work on myself and to think back on the last few months. I'm thinking of tattooing a little number 9 on my arm, close to where they picc line went in, as a reminder of the 9 weeks that I had it in and as a reminder that I never want to experience anything like that again. The only way to ensure that is to take care of myself by exercising and eating well. 

7. Seth, my youngest, is going to be a junior in high school next year. There's so much work to do, including applying for scholarships and getting his volunteer hours done. But what that also means for me is that my #threeyearplan is now a #twoyearplan.

8. I do feel like my new job is part of  my two year plan. Why wait until Seth is gone to school to do something different? There is no time like the present! This gives me two years to really learn my new career and to become good at it and then who know what may be next.  I want to really "Lean In" now that the kids are going to be grown. There's also a novel or two to write.

No, I am never satisfied and I always want more and I have come to accept that and embrace it. I saw a quote recently that I loved. "Life is too short to be unhappy and you don't want to fill your brief time on this planet with activities that deplete your vitality." SO TRUE! I want to live the best part of my life in this last one third.

Still in Quarantine and Working on Little Libraries in Laundromats

Here we are at 9 weeks+ of stay at home. As stay at home restrictions are being lifted, many people are going back out while we are in self-quarantine because we want to be socially responsible. Miranda came home from New York (Long Island) a week ago. Originally anyone coming in from states like New York and Louisiana were asked to quarantine. Miranda said that when she landed in Houston last Saturday nobody asked her anything. Regardless, we are trying to do the right thing and we're staying at home.

It's wonderful having Miranda home. She's already done something huge for me. She created the logo for my personal project Little Libraries in Laundromats. I have it up on the website and Facebook page.

At nine weeks since surgery I went in for check-ups with my infectious disease doctor and my podiatrist and I had an ingrown toenail on the right side of my toenail, yes, the same toe that had surgery. Lovely. It's always some bullshit with me. Seriously. Hopefully this is IT.

I haven't blogged about my Little Libraries in Laundromats project on here. It is a project that is near and dear to my heart right now. It all started when I decided to start a Little Free Library outside my house, on the sidewalk at the corner.

My Little Free Library

Then I was listening to NPR and I heard this story about the City of Milwaukee and how they have an initiative to start little libraries inside of laundromats. I was intrigued with the idea so I searched to see if we had anything similar going on in Houston. The only thing I found was a woman in Kingwood who started a Little Free Library in her own laundromat. Other than that I didn't find an actual city-wide or state initiative. I found another national group called Laundromat Library League but they aren't in Texas. I almost contacted them about expanding their organization to Texas but then I changed my mind.

I thought that since I have already started a relationship with Little Free Library organization with my own library that I should just continue with that organization. I contacted them and I asked them if I could set up Little Free Library Charters in laundromats around the city and they were game. They said that as long as each one had a charter sign it was good.

I started out with four libraries in Near Northside, but one got stolen, as in completely. Someone stole the whole thing, books, box, the whole kit and caboodle. Then toegate happened, followed by pandemic, so I haven't been able to go out and find a new fourth location. My immediate goal is to have five. I want to replace the one I lost, plus one.

I do not intend to cover the entire city. My real goal is to get people to start a little library in a laundromat in their own neighborhood. If I can get the whole city engaged then we can all, as a city, cover our own neighborhood. I don't think that is too lofty a goal.

So I'm waiting for this quarantine to be over so I can set out to find new laundromats and to refill my little libraries. If anyone wants to contribute books or help in any way go to the Little Libraries in Laundromats website and to the "Contact" page. Send me an email letting me know if you have books to donate or if you'd like to help refill the libraries.