Post-it ...

Said the Shark - True Love from Iwave records on Vimeo.

Smile therapy . . .

Have you ever noticed how much smiling at a stranger is a lift?  

Day to day, I am generally furrowed-brow-focused … worried I’ve missed something, worried I’ve forgotten something, strained by the heaviness of “to do”.  But every now and then in and amongst the short choppy phrases of my life appears a comma or two, and in those subtle moments of connection, I find the occasional moving experience.

Like the time I was smack dab in the middle of downtown TO.  In the wrong lane.  You know the one.  Locked in on all sides.  The lane where you reach the light and realize you can’t turn left, you can’t turn right, you can only go straight, and straight is the last place you want to go.  It was while sitting at one such light that my eyes caught the head of a chocolate brown bebopper.  His hair was more than disheveled and if it weren’t for the $150 Puma shoes I might have unfairly judged him homeless.  But I didn’t.  I caught my small town appetite for clean and clear conclusions this time.  His eyes caught me staring.  I smiled.  He smiled.  Sincerely smiled.  The kind that comes with sparkly eyes.  I kept that smile as I turned back to my wheel and my wrong direction road and drove away.  

Then recently there was this time in the ‘burbs.  Big ‘burbs, where the traffic runs four lanes across.  It must have been the end of the work day, for there were loads of cars among those four lanes.  This time I was in the proper lane.  The center lane and on track to go straight.  It was a right and proper lane, but it seemed like an insanely long light.  Daydreaming, I looked over my right shoulder and caught her gaze.  She looked old.  Old old.  I want to say 80, and she also looked tired.  So tired that she might have been 10 years tired and really only 70.  I smiled.  Her smile was hesitant.  It was instantly visible, but you could see the hesitation - the hesitation so tangible that it was like a thing I might have been able to touch if I were closer to her.  Like the corners of her mouth turned up first and held for an moment before she released them and gave herself permission to let her cheeks to really lift.  And when they lifted, her face softened.  I saw relief in that smile.  I hope she had a nicer evening than the day that had preceded it.  Her smile told me it was a tough one.

The one that still has me giggling though, is not so much about a smile, but about surprises that can come with those momentary engagements.  He was driving a big honkin’ jalopy of a truck.  It looked loved.  It wasn’t the “I have money look at meeee” kind of honkin’, and nor was it the “I like my squirrels battered and deep fried” kind either, it seemed more like the “this helps me get to where I need to go with haul” version.  At first glance and impression he appeared oily coiffed to me.  Well groomed, but in a greasy kind of way.  His mustache is what my peripheral vision caught first.  It was the exact shape and density of Super Mario’s mustache, but in real life.  He even kind of looked like him, although his complexion was not nearly as smooth and he had clearly ditched the red “M”bellished cap.  His hair was neatly parted and mostly pepper … just a dash of salt, and trimmed neatly around his ears.  His elbow rested on the doorframe, taking in the heat of our hottest summer day so far.  His eyes caught me studying the mustache and we smiled a soft “thank God it’s the end of the day” kind of smile.  And then he turned his head and I shi* you not, he had a foot long mane of that salt and pepper hair pulled in a neatly gathered pony.  

I rolled down my window and called out “Dude!  Your hair is awesome.”

Okay, I didn’t do that last part.  But I imagined it in my head, and that kept me smiling for hours.

Go ahead and try it.

Smile at a stranger … it’s a lift.

Moving without Moving . . .

I must say that I am the master of a good move.

When I moved into my home just over three years ago, I didn’t flinch one bit.  I did not move a single muscle.  I blinked …

Well, I’m sure I was blinking, but the blinking didn’t actually do it.  

Maybe a bit of winking.

This is what was happening while I was blinking/winking/working …

While deployed on short notice to the other side of the world, my house closed, my apartment lease expired, and my best friends gathered some of theirs and my friends and together they moved me in.

It was blissful.

This move to novemberjuliet was almost that easy.

So where the heck have I been?  There’s not too much to say about what has kept me so busy over the past couple of years, and in particular over the past few months, except to say the light is bright and it’s heat informs me that I’m close to the end of this road.  The intensity of my job, its demands personally and professionally, were crushing and rewarding all at the same time.  This adversity has shown me how much I can stretch … and how much I’d rather not on account of the expensive emotional and personal toll it can take, and that’s been such a gift.  I marvel at how much I have learned about myself through the folks who have worked for me, with me, and managed me.  I can only hope they learned a thing or two as well.

This move marks the end of that old and the beginning of this new bright shiny rest period.  Two years to think, to write, and to learn.  Another gift.

For those of you still here … thanks for sticking this out.  

For those of you returning … welcome back.  I hope to be a better friend!

And for those of you who’ve made a new find … hello to you.

Down under and over there . . .

Me and my groovy sidekick Z are writing over here.

www.novemberjuliet.com

Come and see!

Update on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 10:20PM by Norma Jean Barrett

For those of you who followed our travels on novemberjuliet, wasn’t that fun?!!!  It rocked for Z, my pint-size traveller and me and Gramma B and was a great way to stay in touch.

I must admit, while I enjoyed the iWeb templates, I did not enjoy some of the limitations of using mobileme to upload.  For starters, you can’t modify your site from any computer, but only your own, which means you have to travel with some heavier tech than just your camera.

As a result, I decided not to purchase an iWeb/mobileme subscription and opted to use the domain name on my squarespace site.  All of the photo’s and blog posts from the Australia travel blog will be moved to flickr shortly!

1L . . . case closed.

At 9 a.m. today I am sitting down to write my last first year final.

The last exam that I will write as a part-time student.

It has taken me three years to finish my first year core law classes.

It might take me a lifetime to properly thank the folks who’ve helped me juggle work and Zach with school.  From playdates for Zach so that I could study, to meals, to time away from work, to looking the other way when a project wasn’t completely up to snuff, to study notes from fellow students, to parents not too proud to tell me how proud they are, to small reminders that “it’s almost over”.

Thank-you squad.  

Thanks for the cheers, the encouragement and the patience!

Here’s to full-time in Sept 09!