One down, mumble-mumble to go

I've spent the last couple weeks trying to get organized for a month of upcoming events. Yesterday afternoon I crossed the first event off the list. I'd love to feel confident about conducting meetings and making sure all my ducks are in a row, but I end up just feeling scattered and wishing I'd done things better/differently/over.

But it's done. So there's that.

To add to the FUN around here last week, I agreed to do a short video for my friend's pottery business. And it really was fun. I haven't made a "movie" in years and years. I used to do lots of them – and people paid me! – for graduations, birthdays, etc., but the technology has improved so much that most folks can DIY them now.

Marcia, who's been blind since birth, can't, and so I'm always happy to help her when she needs anything to help promote her gallery.

Yesterday's meeting wasn't until 3 in the afternoon, so I decided, "Hey! Why not make another short video!" Because there's always time for video-making, right?

I've been thinking about an idea for a political ad. Most commercials are full of lies and quite negative. There are a couple exceptions, but not many. My idea was for something simple and with a message – not necessarily funny, but at least truthful and hopefully thought-provoking.

So I finished all the last-minute meeting stuff, then made the video, then took a walk, then got cleaned up and went to the meeting. I was able to share the video with the group, and got a great response. So now it's your turn! And with this share … I'm outta here!

A fine, fine weekend

My life is so different now than it was just a few years ago. When I moved here to West Virginia, I didn't know anyone except my husband. He worked in various places throughout the state, and for several years was gone three or four days a week. I spent a lot of time here in the Middle of Nowhere by myself, honing my online skills and knitting. A lot.

He worked in Huntington for a couple of years. For one of those years we rented a house and I moved there. I never really got to know my way around Cabell County, but I knew where the mall was (heh), and we met lots of people. Those connections led to our going to Greenbo Lake every fall for a relaxing, rewarding and refreshing conference, one we've been going to since 2000. We've only missed one year. We were on our way to Kentucky in 2010 when we learned my father had died.

This past weekend was the conference, and it was – again – a reunion with old friends, an opportunity to make new ones and a time to refresh, renew and relax.

For the past six years I've been involved with another group, one I learned of when I began volunteering to elect President Obama. The West Virginia Federation of Democratic Women annual meeting is next weekend. I have a lot to do to get ready for it in the next three days, since I have to be there Thursday. The past three days would have been helpful, time wise, for getting things organized, but I've found that the tasks in front of me usually take up the available hours anyway.

Everything will be ready, on time. And if I forget something? Oh, well. That's not to say I'm not going to do my best to have everything I need done and packed and ready on time. It is to say that I'm pretty sure no one is going to scold me if something gets left behind.

In fact, I'm quite sure that – at my age, especially – I'm beyond worrying about others' opinions. I learned that through the folks at this weekend's conference, over the past couple decades. I don't know if anyone else is born knowing that what other people think of them is none of their business, but it took me a while.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned in my life is that not everyone is going to like me. And the way I learned that is by conceding that I don't like everyone I meet. It's one of those "if A = B and B = C, then A = C" things.

I think.

Anyhoo, time's a wasting. I didn't have much computer time over the weekend and need to go through emails, prepare a report, and work on a candidate's project. I also need to put dinner in the slow cooker, do laundry, mow the grass (AGAIN!), and begin making piles of Things I Need To Take With Me.

Because I wouldn't want to forget anything and have someone think less of me for it, now, would I?