Status Update — 2Q2008

Can you believe that half of the year is over? Already? Who has the remote because I could use a few minutes on ‘pause’ just to get caught up. Anyway, another quarter is over and that means another look at where I am with my “Resolutions 2008“.

Giving
Goal 1: Make 18 trips to long-term care facilities in 2008.
Status: I’ve made 10 trips so far.

Goal 2: Volunteer at least one weekend a month as a medical advocate.
Status: I finally have everything completed so that I can begin my on-the-job training. That will start in July, if my schedule works with the Center’s.

Goal 3: Take call on the crisis hotline at least two nights a month.
Status: This is going to come off the list for this year. The Center is more interested in me working as a Medical Advocate so free time will be spent there.

Goal 4: Increase charitable giving by 50% and make quarterly donations.
Status: I’ve donated one-half my goal for the year. I’ve also begun lending money through Kiva, which can’t be counted towards giving but it is another charitable organization that I’m involved with this year.

Fun
Goal 1: Join a “fun” volunteer organization.
Status: This one will be coming off the list too. With the additional work responsibilities and taking call for the Center, I don’t want to have to do anything else. I can find fun on my own time.

Goal 2: Take a full week vacation, preferably out of state.
Status: I’ve been given the go-ahead to plan a vacation and have started training someone on the team to cover for me. Great strides from last year!

Reading
Goal 1: Read 52 books, or an average of one per week, in 2008.
Status: Completed 32 books in the first half of the year.

Goal 2: Read primarily biographies/memoirs and the works of John Steinbeck in 2008.
Status: Completed 24 bios and two Steinbeck novels.

Overall, I’m pleased with my progress but I still have some work to do. This next quarter needs to be focused on the medical advocacy and the vacation. And I do believe the one will further highlight the need for the other.

So how are you doing at the mid-year point? Where is your focus going to be as we finish off 2008? Even if you don’t have ‘resolutions’, is there something you want to get done before the end of summer?

49 today

Did you really think I could let this day go by without some sort of recognition? Pleez.

Happy birthday, Vincent!

On the bookshelf, #2008-32

Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam, by Zainab Salbi

I don’t often tell you to do something. Sure, I may suggest this or recommend that but I can’t recall the last time I told you to do something. Today, I am telling you. Read this book.

From the bn.com site:

Zainab Salbi was eleven years old when her father was chosen to serve as Saddam Hussein’s personal pilot, her family often forced to spend weekends with Saddam where he watched their every move. As a palace insider, Zainab offers a singular glimpse of what it is like to come of age under a dictator and provides an intimate portrait of the man she was taught to call “uncle.” She watched as Saddam pitted friends, spouses, and even children against each other to compete for his approval. She was sent to donate her mother’s jewelry to one of the world’s richest men, asked to erase her memory as she heard of crimes she was not supposed to hear of, and witnessed her mother hiding her tears lest it upset Saddam. Her mother eventually sent Zainab to America for an arranged marriage, to spare her from Saddam’s growing affection, but the marriage intended to save her turned out to be another world of tyranny and abuse.

Despite extraordinary psychological challenges, Zainab started over. She forged a new identity as a champion of female victims of war, dedicating her life to speaking out on behalf of oppressed women around the world. But until now, Zainab has never told this very personal tale. In this intimate portrait, she reveals the tyrant through the eyes of a child, a secretly rebellious teenager, an abused wife, and ultimately a professional woman coming to terms with the horror of secrets her mother revealed only on her deathbed. Through her ability to come to terms with the child she used to be and the dangerous world in which she managed to survive, Between Two Worlds emerges as a story of heroism like no other

Zainab Salbi is the founder of Women for Women International, the non-profit organization that seeks to empower women victims of war with job training, education and economic self-sufficiency.

Read this book. It will touch your heart and hopefully guide you to ask the question, “How can I help?”

Pride and equality

The year after she graduated, one of the girls from our high school moved in with our female gym teacher and coach. Although we knew our coach was a lesbian, we had no idea about the girl.  It surprised us but we were genuinely happy for them. Their relationship seemed to be very solid, they were kind to each other and they had a lot in common. Today, over twenty five years later, the girl and the coach are still together. I saw a picture of them in the university alumni newsletter a year or so ago and they still look very happy.

When I think of all the successful long-term relationships I’ve known, the coach and the girl from my high school top the list. It depresses me that they aren’t allowed to celebrate their relationship in marriage like they want to. I believe everyone should have the right to marry the person who makes them happy, who loves them, and promises to stand by them for better or for worse.   That is a truly rare and wonderful thing that too many of us take for granted.

Heterosexuals certainly do not have the market cornered on love, commitment or fidelity. Our divorce rate statistics attest to that. While I do agree that marriage is a sacred thing and should not be entered into lightly, I do not agree that two people who love and respect each other and who want to spend their lives together should be stopped from celebrating that in a legal ceremony with their family and friends just because they both use the same restroom in the mall. The question of sexuality should not be a factor in anything a person wants to do, whether it be a working in a particular occupation, raising a child or being a spouse.

Maybe the right to marry should have to be earned by everyone. That might give everyone the perspective they need.

Pride Weekends have been celebrated all over the country this month.  Isn’t it disheartening that in this land of ‘all men are created equal’, they are not?

Friday Five, #50

1. Remember this post? Well, the child’s name is Marisa. Ma-Ri-Sa. None of those syllables are even close. Yeah, let the mocking commence.

2. My new web obsession? StumbleUpon. (Twitter is SO last month.) Are you Stumbling? I’m sure you are…It certainly isn’t new but I’m the last to know about anything. If not, give it a try. It is the online equivalent of an endless buffet with only your favorite foods on it. Just page after page of things that interest you. It’s pretty cool.

3. Just learned the July NaBloPoMo theme is FOOD. Interesting, especially with the whole vegan thing approaching. I haven’t NaBlo’d since March…is it time? Can I do it? Do I dare? Do we care?

4. If you were offered a great job, doing something that you, and many other people, think is something you would be really good at and you would really enjoy, would you take it? Of course you would. Now, what if the job came with a not-so-good supervisor who doesn’t particularly like you and at best, could be seen as an obstacle to you being successful in the job. Do you take it now? (You already have a job so you don’t NEED to take it.) Seriously, what would you do?

5. And just for giggles…