Baby, baby

I have an announcement to make. I’m having an ice cream baby. The signs are there — I can’t fit into my pants, my boobs are bigger, my belly is even starting to pop! I guess it’s time to suck it up and go back to torturing my poor body by running again. I suppose I could take the time to learn some type of exercise or other physical activity that won’t be so harsh on my old man knees, but who wants to go through all that trouble? And yes, I know I also need to cut back on the ice cream. Man, what happened to my metabolism? Getting old sucks!

Happy

Words are strong. They have power. People who know how to use words are heavily armed and definitely use words to their advantage.

I’m surrounded by a whole wealth of negativity at work. Everyone is out for him or herself and will step on anyone to stay on top. Quite honestly it is a pretty depressing and frustrating environment lately.
It’s so strange how words can lift you up so or drag you down so easily. I don’t think I realized just how far down I had been until Monday. Monday is when my first two assignments were returned to me from my journalism class.

Encouragement. Praise. Motivation. Three words that I am not used to hearing directed toward me. Naturally then whenever I do hear any words of encouragement I am going to revel in it for as long as I can. I am still on my high, two days later. I find it amazing how just a little bit of recognition can alter one’s entire attitude. I’m so used to being corrected constantly, having everything wrong, and every flaw pointed out to me. When my instructor gave me my papers back and kept me after class to talk to me about them I wasn’t sure how to even react. When she said that my very first assignment for this class, an assignment that was handed out to us before we really had any lessons or even met her, was a good paper and I should expand on it and write more–well I was ecstatic. Someone was actually giving me words of encouragement! I felt surprised at first, and then I felt empowered. I felt…happy. My whole outlook had changed; suddenly I had a renewed confidence in myself. For the first time in over a year I had confidence, not just in this class but in myself. I was able to carry over this feeling into work the next day as well. I was a little happier, my day went by fast, I didn’t feel too annoyed when asked to do silly little mundane tasks that people should be doing for themselves. I even slept for the entire night two nights in a row. That is not an easy task!

Well, I’m going to start out today with this new found confidence. I hear that moods can be contagious. Let’s see if I can change someone else’s frown upside down today.

The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades

I think I may start posting some of my assignments. Not all of them, just a few writing assignments here and there. Just to stay current with my postings, so I don’t go months without any activity here. This is my first assignment – a background piece for a journalism class. Just something short and sweet.

Giving a background on myself is always tough for me to do. I always want to give entirely too much information. I feel like I should give my entire life story. Given that this story has to be confined to a specific experience in my life I hope it will be a bit easier.
I honestly have zero to little experience or exposure to how journalists operate. The most exposure I have to the workings of a journalist is that I’m friends with the Managing Editor of the Buffalo News and friends with the former editor of the Hamburg Sun who now does freelance for the Buffalo News from time to time. That is the closest I come to knowing anything journalism.
As far as future plans are, I am more confused now than I was at 20. Once upon a time I wanted to write. Not necessarily journalistic writing, but writing anything. See, I’m 36 now, with a family and full-time job and my college career is just winding up, finally. My job is not very conducive to scheduling college classes so many of the writing classes that I would have liked to take were not an option. Now I feel I do not have the writing skills needed for any type of career with heavy writing. So to be honest, right now I’m very scared for my future; I have much student loan debt and not a strong enough skill set to advance from my current job.
I take in quite a few different media outlets. I receive CNN and other news notifications on my phone. I am very heavy on Twitter and Facebook. I am on my computer all day at work so whenever my phone chirps with a notification, I’m all over the internet looking for more information. Let’s not forget radio and television. In the car I listen to the radio, either music or sports radio, not really news unless there is something big happening. At home I like to watch T.V. if I have the down time. That usually doesn’t happen until later at night, but that is life with four kids.