Posted by: Author | August 16, 2011

Stress and a Bit of a Whine and Request for Patience

I love my friends, my job and my writing. Right now, I’m feeling beset on all sides, though. I like to think I’m a supportive and caring person. It’s always been easier for me to give than to receive and that makes things hard for me. When I need support and patience, it seems it’s in short supply. It almost seems like it becomes the expected norm for me to be the strong one and I get no quarter from others.

Right now, I’m under some emotional stress and am buried at work with upcoming court appearances and depositions that I need to be prepping for. I’m also trying in every spare moment to get this manuscript that I have done polished and ready to submit. Right now, I have nothing out there to any of my publishers with a release date and I need to get this done so I can submit it.

Every time I find 10 mins to relax, it seems like there is pressure on me to do something. Like respond to an email, send a letter, answer a question, etc.  I’m respectfully asking that I be given some space to just BE. If you see me tweeting or a new blog post comes up (I do have several already written that are set to go off at a certain time/day), that just means I had a few minutes for me. I do need me time once in a while. I really want to answer all the needs my friends have but right now, I feel spent. Tired- exhausted even. Please understand it’s not that I love anyone any less, it’s that I need to love me for the next few days.

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Posted by: Author | August 15, 2011

Where in the World is Jillian Today?

http://www.caseycrow.com/blog/  I’m guesting here today talking about Redemption for the Devil and it’s also my day Over the Backyard Fence and I’m sharing a recipe over there: http://llblog2010.wordpress.com/

Other than that, the day job has me tied up in prep for court!

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Posted by: Author | August 14, 2011

Birthday Weekend

My sister’s birthday was Friday, the 12th and my mom’s is tomorrow, the 15th. Friday, I went to see Harry Potter, the last installment, with my sister and today, I must have lunch and ice cream cake with my mother. My mom is already  mad at me for not going to lunch with my dad, her and my sister on Friday for the sister’s b’day but I already had plans, and we usually do dinner for the sibling. So, I’ve gotta be sure to head to the lunch today since I’m already on the bad daughter/sister list–even though I DID take her to the movie on Friday. I can’t win. LOL!

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Posted by: Author | August 12, 2011

Friday Fact- August 12, 2011- Catenary Arches

A catenary arch is a perfect physical embodiment of compression. There’s no wasted section of the arch and it’s self supporting. The word catenary comes from the Latin for chain.   If you hook each end of a chain to a post, the way it hangs loose is  a catenary as it acts on its own weight. An example of an inverted catenary arch is the St. Louis, Missouri Gateway Arch. I’m attaching a copy of a double inverted catenary arch to the end of this post. You might be surprised about it.

I’m oversimplfying this as there are also arguments that the Gateway Arch is a parabolic arch which  is a math term that differs somewhat from a catenary. Just trust me on this, if you want the differences explained, don’t ask an architect as they are too esoteric to explain it in layman’s terms – you must trust me on this because my son has his degree in architecture and I don’t have a clue what he said about it. LOL!  Just check out the pictures and enjoy!

example of catenary arch with chain

Gateway Arch

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Double inverted catenary arches

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Posted by: Author | August 11, 2011

Sad Day

Today was the funeral of my friend and colleague -they called it a celebration of his life but it really was a sad day.  I feel bereft and am worn out. I forgot I have a club meeting tonight as well. I don’t know how I’m going to make it,  but I keep thinking about how brave my friend is in her loss of  her husband and if she can buck up and do all the things she’s been doing for the past 5 days, I can do what I need to do as well.

She told me last night that she didn’t even know how she was standing upright but that somehow she was finding the strength to do so. She reminded me of the time that one of our other friends said that her husband would drink dirty dishwater for her and we shared a little giggle over that because he totally would have. If she’d asked.  What a great couple they were. I hope we can all band together to help her through this terrible, terrible time in her life.

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Posted by: Author | August 10, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

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Posted by: Author | August 9, 2011

Reading a Book that I Don’t Like the Protagonist

It’s really weird, I like the story line and the fact that the action takes place in Paris during the German occupation in World War II. I find that the reading is going slowly though since I don’t like the heroine. I’m not invested in her fate and therefore, even though the story itself is interesting, I keep getting side tracked with my dislike of this woman. I mean, I really don’t like her. At all.

Will I ever finish the story? That’s up in the air since I’ve read two more books since I started this one. Each of them was over 340 pages and I’m still on page 139 of this one. Wagers on the odds of me finishing this one, anyone?

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Posted by: Author | August 8, 2011

Sadness and a Bit of Dread

My sister is only a year and a half older than me and we shared many things through the years. Her best friend in high school also included me in their fun and we’ve stayed friends over the years. She’s an avid biker and she and her husband belinged to a cycling club. On Saturday, on their ride, he suffered a massive heart attack and could not be revived. So sad. He was 54 and she adored him. They were never able to have children and she lavished all the  love she could on him. She’s going to be so lost now, my heart breaks for her. He was also a colleague of mine in the legal arena as he was a lawyer.

He sometimes drove me crazy when we had a case against each other but he was really a good guy and loved his family with all his heart.  I have a bit of dread over all this as I’m very empathic and I know I’m going to have a tough time the next few days as I always draw into myself the angst and sadness around me. It’s going to be hard on my friend to get through all the things she has to do and I know I’ll probably feel a lot of her pain and sadness when I’m around her.

It’s going to be a long few days. Any prayers are appreciated. Thanks.

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Posted by: Author | August 6, 2011

New Word for You: Froideur

I like the sound of this one. It means coolness or reserve between people and it comes from the French for cold: Froid.

There are several people I know who this word could apply to but I won’t name names. LOL!  I try very hard to be nice to people and like to think I have a warm, welcoming demeanor, but there are just some people in the world that don’t warm up to me nor I to them. I guess that’s cool since we can’t all always like everyone, right? 

There is one particular person I have tried my level best to be nice to and she always pushes me away. I can’t figure out if she’s the issue or I am and I’ve decided to let it go and not beat myself up over it anymore.  C’est la vie!

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Posted by: Author | August 5, 2011

Friday Facts- August 5, 2011- School of Athens

The School of Athens is a famous fresco painted by Raphael in 1510. He was hired to paint art in some of the rooms in the Vatican and one of his most famous works is still there to this day. My son told me on the plane on the way to Rome that he wanted to see it and it was one of his favorite things during the trip. He spent a long time in the room walking around and studying it.

It’s a picture of philosophers gathered together and some of them have the faces of some of Raphael’s contemporaries. He even has himself peeking out of one of the corners.  The central figures are Plato and Aristotle. They are surrounded by other philosophers/mathematicians/astrologers. 

These philosophers may have all lived in different eras and ages but Raphael painted them in a timeless school of philosophy all together. Included are Socrates, Euclid, Pythagoras, Diogenes, Ptolemy and Zoroaster. Also there, and controversial at the time, is a female philosopher,  Hypatia.  Raphael had to disguise her likeness to get away with putting her in the picture.

Heraclitus is depicted as looking like Michelangelo and some of the other philosophers are depicted with the faces of some of Raphael’s contemporaries.  Here’s a link to check out all the people featured in the painting: http://www.newbanner.com/AboutPic/athena/raphael/nbi_ath4.html

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