Ya gotta love that Target Dollar Store!
My two latest finds:
1.) a USB-powered coffee warmer that lights up and flashes in different colors and
2.) a USB-powered laptop light with a cool robot-like bendable arm.
I'm loading up. They'll make great stocking stuffers!
A: It's the name of the event at which family generations who haven't yet met are brought together for the first time -- and Dad and Lou are hosting one at a mountain lake resort in Oregon this summer! (My creative dad coined the term.)
My parents had four children between 1952 and 1960; Lou and her husband had three children during those years, so between them there are seven adult children hovering around or just past 50 (and I'm the only grrrrl of the bunch). The many grandchildren aren't so close in age -- but that's only because my parents' grandchildren now range from 2 to 26! And Lou -- who doesn't look a day over 62 -- is a GREAT-grandmother to a few kidlets!
So for a long weekend at the end of July about 25 descendants of Dad and Lou will get together for fun and festivities. Just getting there will be an adventure for my family: I'm flying down a week early to help with planning, cooking, etc. (see note about being the only daughter of the bunch, above). Elisabeth is flying three days later because she has accounts in that area and will work a bit before and after. Tom and a kid or two will drive the nine hours it takes to get there in the middle of the night and Peter, Danelle and anyone left over will follow a few hours later.
The rest of Dad's descendants (and his sister and her meschpoche) will arrive from the San Francisco Bay Area, and Lou's sons and their kids will arrive from as far away as Texas. It should be a blast for all.
But, as much as I'm looking forward to the hoopla of the event, I'm probably looking forward at least as much to the week previous when I will live alone in the cottage that Dad and Mom built a few years before Mom died. This cozy cottage sits at the end of a short, meandering path from Dad's house (which is actually five geodesic domes put together -- a whole different post), but it feels to me like a completely separate world from anything outside it. I'm not sure whether this is because I lived there alone for the month previous to Mom's death and so it feels that it harbors many very personal and intense emotions... or if it's just such a cozy, quaint place that everyone feels so at home there. But I can hardly wait to be back home in "my" cottage.
And... I am meeting the author of this book for coffee and a walk in the park! Her book touched me deeply because, not only did her mother die of ovarian cancer as mine did, but because she lives in the same town that Mom did, everything she describes touched me that much more personally. I wrote to her when I finished her book, tears streaming down my face, and she and I have been in touch since, so finally meeting her will be poignant and wonderful!
But before I fly out of Seattle on Saturday, there is much to do! Before my interview this afternoon, I need to do some (pro-bono) work for Learning Friends. Tomorrow Elisabeth wants me to accompany her again as she looks at more condos, hoping to buy before we go to Germany. 
And tomorrow night I'll be cooking a farewell dinner before Eva heads back to Germany on Saturday (but we'll see her there in September).
And of course, if I don't get the camping gear together before I leave the family might show up without sleeping bags! Or maybe I'm just deluding myself into thinking that I'm still that much needed...
I have an interview for this job tomorrow and I applied for this one this morning.
The fact that both these jobs even exist right now and they each speak to a separate but distinct passion of mine that I haven't been able to nurture in a recent employment position tells me that I'm absolutely on-target in waiting for the RIGHT position, and that I must chose a job at this point in my career -- and in my life -- that both requires and nurtures my social entrepreneurial spirit.
Cross your fingers (or for my German blogging friends, "drueck die Daume")!
1.) You know it has something to do with feeling sexy at some point previously.
2.) You know it will eventually subside, but dang! When?!
3.) You sometimes have to stop what you're doing and just breathe... and wait.
4.) You can't describe exactly what it feels like to others.
5.) It starts at the core of your body and emanates outward. (Disclaimer: See # 4)
6.) Having the support of a loved one to get through it is very helpful. It feels lonely without support.
7.) You can feel your body saying to you, "Everything about your life is changing..."
8.) It can make you feel empowered!
9.) It can drain you of all sense of empowerment.
10.) It is uniquely ours as women.
I don't normally put much stock into daily horoscopes, but I had to chuckle at mine today:
"You don't really want to be in charge of the entire project. It could be a good idea if you did, since you know how everything works, but hold off on your final decision."
What comes after D?
Why, "E," of course! Words like energized and enthused and excited and eager and encouraged and expectant.
The good news is that I found work that speaks to me, that is right up my alley, and that is with someone (Ann McCormick) I've respected and revered from afar for over two decades and who, it turns out, shares my philosophies about just about everything -- from education and educational media to parenting and preferred vacation spots.
Ann and I have had parallel careers for the past 25 years, though on completely different planes, as she has been far more successful and in the limelight than I have. Although our paths have crossed numerous times, at CES, at NECC, and definitely at The Learning Company, which Ann founded and for whom I designed a game in 1987, it is only in the past few days that Ann and I have spoken extensively and come to realize how of-one-mind we are!
Ann's current venture is called Learning Friends, and if all goes according to plan, it will become the leader and premier provider of e-learning for children ages 4 - 9 (my favorite age group to design for). Learning Friends is currently in the fund-raising stage -- which means that for now they are only able to pay me in (hopeful) stock, not in cash... thus the final E-word, empoverished (improperly spelled, I know, but I had a THEME going)!
This is not an opportunity I will pass up because if it pans out it will be exactly the right fit for me. Having designed educational software programs for kids in the 80's and 90's like I did, Ann totally GETS my rant about what's happened to the industry and she completely agrees that the focus should stay on engaging and inspiring kids, not overwhelming them with superfluous technology. We want to create "immersive worlds" that teach reading and mathematics while integrating science, social studies, the arts, foreign language, emotional intelligence and technology. Each environment will contain integrated games, activities, tools, characters and stories.
Fun, yes? Inspiring, yes? And educational too!
There's so much to do -- from assisting with fund-raising efforts (obviously most important) to helping to organize numerous data bases and content, to developing characters and stories, to designing the user interface.
I'll still have to look for a "real" (that is, a paying) job because we still have a mortgage to pay, mouths to feed and college tuition (times three -- gasp!) to pay. And I'll still have to be prepared for Learning Friends NOT to pan out into a "real" job -- because that's what these things sometimes do. But for now, this just plain feels right and I'm old and experienced enough to know that sometimes the very best thing to go on is good ol' trusty intuition.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to file my weekly unemployment claim.
Taken by Kat this morning in the next town over where she and a bunch of friends had gone camping last night.
Yes, there's camping on a river in a lush valley within a 10 minute drive from our house.
