A Cacographic Conundrum

ca⋅cog⋅ra⋅phy  [kuh-kog-ruh-fee]
–noun
1. bad handwriting; poor penmanship.
2. incorrect spelling.

Cacography is a new word I learned today (Thanks Alan). However, this new knowledge poses a new problem. My penmanship is atrocious and yet and I am very good speller. In fact, poor spelling is one of my pet peeves. I feel like the only recourse is to hate myself.

SHEDing for Growth

There is a new movie coming out called the Julie/Julia Project or something like that. It is about a woman (Julie) who decided to cook her way through a Julia Child cookbook in one year and blog about what she was doing. This struck me as interesting. Even more so because it is based on a true story. So when my desire to write more popped into my brain as I was starting to read "When Organizing Isn't Enough - SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life" I remembered this movie I heard about. So I am going to attempt to blog my way through this book.

On the subject of the book, I am a big fan of Julie Morgenstern. Her "SPACE" method and philosophy of organizing from the inside out help focus my intense need to organize without all the crazy systems I had previously come up with on my own.

SHED is the fourth book of hers that I have purchased and I have no doubt it will be as good and as helpful as the others.

I'll go into more detail next time as to what the purpose of SHEDing is but to start off I'll just explain her latest acronym.

S - Separate the treasures
H - Heave the trash
E - Embrace your identity
D - Drive yourself forward

Undoubtedly, someone will think that this is all a bunch of touchy-feely self-help crap. Possibly, but considering her other books on home organizing, time management and ways to improve your desk/office/schedule at work have been extremely helpful and chock full of great tips, I figure what is the harm in giving it a shot.

My first assignment is to give this next phase of my life a theme. This will certainly require some consideration. A few words do pop into my mind: Freedom, Creativity, Independence, Exploration, Expression, Self-Gratification, etc. I suppose in order to accurately give a name to what I want this next phase of my life to be about I need to further examine the phases I have already been through. But that is for next time.

Until then....D

Lunch Time Train of Thought

The whole drive to pick up lunch (small Greek salad from Salem’s if you are interested in that sort of detail) and get back to the office, my mind was teeming with things that I could blog about. Not because I feel that there is anything truly informative or life alternating that I have to say, but just the physical process of writing (pen to paper or fingers to keys) taps into my creative energies and a special place in my heart. Yet as I start to log into my Blogger account, I have a sudden blankness. The words that had so easily floated through my mind as I navigated the twenty minute round trip drive have utterly disappeared the moment I left my car.

I think this is part of the reason that I have been so unproductive when it comes to writing lately. My creativity seems to be at its peak when I am unable to write like when I am in the car, in the shower or working. I’m using my lunch hour today to try and get as many words on paper as possible. This isn’t exactly fiction worthy, but like I said in my first blog, this is more about priming the pump. The more I write, the more I want to write. Just like the more I read the more I want to write. Both are things that tap into that creative portion of my brain that is yearning to send my stories out into the world.

I decided a month or three ago that I was missing out on a great opportunity to write. For the first time in twelve years I was not in a relationship or on the prowl looking to get into a relationship. My free time could be spent in whatever form I choose without having to worry about canceling a date or hiding myself away in another room for a little peace and quiet. I realized that I have squandered the last seventeen months of independence as I’ve barely written a word. I’ve journaled on occasion. I’ve written numerous e-mails and tapped out hundreds of text messages, but what did I have to show for it? Okay, that is a bit extreme. I am sure that the emails and texts that I have sent over the last 17 months have helped to deepen my personal relationships with many of my friends. So it wasn’t completely wasted but it brings me no closer having a piece of fiction ready to submit to publishers or agents.

The world journaled really gets my brain buzzing in a totally different direction though. I’m not sure at what point the noun journal became used in common every day language as a verb. Understandably the English language is always changing. Consider the fact that the word “bling” is now in the dictionary. With this in mind, I check dictionary.com and was surprised that according to them, the word journal is still only a noun. Yet if you tell anyone you spent an hour journaling last night, they would instantly understand that you were writing something personal. It would be small journal clips for a scrapbook project or the equivalent of writing in your diary. The word seems to be used a lot in religious groups as a means to grow closer to God. I am fully in favor of all of these aspects of writing. It just puzzles me when and how journal went from a noun to a verb and why the dictionary hasn’t caught on to this new usage. Especially when you consider the fact that the words “blog” and “vlog” are represented in the dictionary. When you get down to it, what is the difference between blogging and journaling? Is it the medium they are presented on? Journaling tends to be on paper where blogs exists exclusively on the internet? What if you write journal on paper and then post it to your blog? Does it them become a jlog? Perhaps a blournal?

Anyway, I am moving away from my point. Wait…do I even have a point? I suppose not, but isn’t that the point of all this. You don’t have to have a point? Rambling is totally accepted, assuming your audience is okay with it. At this point I don’t know who my audience is, so if you read this and decide you want to be a part of that regular audience and you would prefer I keep to a point instead of rambling – TELL ME. I’m not psychic. After all, if I am only doing this for myself I might just write the words “story idea” over and over again until I get one.

If you spent time reading this, thank you!

Chaos Donkeys and Steak Sandwiches

I started with Hennessy in the spring of 2003 as a part-time receptionist and worked my way into my current position as Administrative Assistant. In the fall of 2004, I was informed that I had been assigned my first on-site project. Being the natural organizer that I am, I began assembling list after list of everything I could think that we would possibly need to have on site. We weren’t even scheduled to move to the site for several weeks. But I wanted to be prepared.

This is when I learned one of the most valuable lessons, not only in construction, but in life. My boss, in words that could only come from a character like him, said “learn to ride the chaos donkey, or it’ll be riding you.” Truer words were never spoken.

That first project in the fall of 2004 was the first of many. We spent the next three years moving from job site to job site. If it hadn’t been for my ability to “ride the chaos donkey” I don’t know how I would have taken some of the odd things that happened over those next few years. There was the time that the subcontractor kissed me out of the blue. Not too odd except that I was married at the time and about a foot taller than the subcontractor in question. There was the time I came to work to find a bar of soap on the trailer hitch. Apparently, the homeless in the area were using the drainage from the trailer’s A/C unit to bathe in. Then there was the time an Architect walked in on me while using the bathroom. Luckily I was mid-zip so it could have been worse. I could have sworn I’d locked the door.

About a year into our field work we were working at a private school in Tampa building a Multi-purpose building. We were still in the same trailer from our first project. The set up worked well for us so moving it from one site to the next seemed the logical thing to do. However, after a year on a construction site, it had seen better days. Not to mention I think the thing was built in the 70’s. The rental company was out several times to fix issues.

The most interesting glitch was the day the door knob to the bathroom fell apart in my hands. My character of a boss was always cracking jokes so this occasion was no different. When he stepped into the restroom, he added “don’t peek” before he pulled the door to. Peeking had never crossed my mind, but the up side was that had anyone walked into the trailer I could head them off before they accidentally walked in on him. We had posted a note on the door which stated the bathroom was occupied, but who’s to say the note would be read before someone barged in.

Later that morning, while I was completely alone in the trailer, nature called. The question was how to use the restroom with nobody to run interference for me. Everyone was out walking the site and depending on what they came across they could be gone for ten minutes or over an hour. My bladder simply wouldn’t wait.

I moved the sticky note over the hole left behind by the missing door knob so if anyone did enter they would see the note when they reached for the knob. Of course, that wasn’t enough to make me feel secure in my privacy. After all, we had people in and out of our trailer all day long and I didn’t know these men enough to trust that they wouldn’t come barging in.

In a moment of false logic, I pulled the door all the way closed and went about my business. As I stood at the sink a few moments later, the stupidity of what I had done sank in.

Yes, the door knobs had fallen off. Yes, the door did open outward. But the guts of the door knob and latch bolt were still in place. So here I stood inside a closed bathroom, nobody else in the trailer and no way to pull the latch bolt back so I could push the door open.

I had left my cell phone on my desk so if I couldn’t figure a way out of this, I’d be stuck until someone came back. I attempted to use my fingers to fiddle with the latch bolt. Nothing happened. With no other options, I took a seat and decided to wait it out.

I’m not sure how much time passed when I heard the trailer door open.

I immediately called out “Hello” wondering who had come to my rescue.

Please don’t let it be the Owner or the Architect! Luckily for me, it was Peanut.

Peanut is one of our field workers who had been with Hennessy for something like 50 years. He is a sweetheart of a man and, as I would soon learn, slightly hard of hearing.

Peanut called back to me and said “I came to see if you wanted a steak sandwich.” We were working right down the road from a great little place called Mott & Hester’s and our group frequently picked up lunches there. (http://www.mottandhesterdeli.com)

“I can’t think about food right now Peanut cause I’m stuck in the bathroom. Can you get me out?” All I heard was silence and the squeak of the office chair at the Superintendent’s desk. At this point I was puzzled? Why wasn’t he looking for tools? I called out to him several more times with no response. I start yelling at the top of my lungs “Peanut, can you hear me?”

He replied back “I can wait.”

I screamed “Peanut, I am STUCK in the bathroom.”

At this point, I heard him get up out of the chair and walk in my direction. “I’ll just get you a sandwich” he said.

I banged on the door and called out again, “I am STUCK. Can you get this door open?”

“Oh, you are stuck in there,” he replied. I saw his weathered fingers poke through the hole but he had no more success then I did. “I’ll be back.”

Within a few minutes he was back with the Superintendent who slid a credit card in the door and set me free. The good-natured ribbing started immediately. The best part was the sheepish look on Peanut’s face when he apologized for not understanding. “I thought you were “stuck” in the bathroom.”

I honestly have no memory if I ate a steak sandwich that day or not. It has been nearly four years, Peanut has retired, but whenever he stops by the office to say hello, he still asks if I want a steak sandwich.

So remember - Learn to ride the chaos donkey or it will ride you!