plates smashing and a planner

i know i prattle on ceaselessly about my family.

of course, you all know why. 

it is my blog and they fill me with things to think about. 

sometimes i brag, 

and sometimes, i whine. 

this is gonna be a mixture of the two. 

firstly, i  think that the Greek culture supports the act of smashing plates. 

i have heard that it is considered good luck. 

also when i was young and the "Ed Sullivan" show was on the air, there was an act

i very much enjoyed. 

there was some kind of juggler that spun dishes on sticks. 

it was an act of huge unreasonable faith that they all stayed up in the air spinning. 

i never witnessed any crashing to the ground. 

many, many times in my life, i have felt like i was in charge of spinning plates. 

if any had fallen, i was sure that they were going to heaven with all the crockery

that Greek people had thrown in acts of happy lucky moments. 

i am sticking to this, for obvious reasons. 

i need the luck mostly. 

hard work is part of my lifestyle... at least i think so. 

it may not seem like it is, but i really try to get some stuff done. 

here is where some bragging comes into formal focus. 

i often feel like the to-do list is longer than i can possibly attack. 

also, i am prone to easily being distracted. 

at some point, i may even have had a sharp mind. 

now i am on screwy sleep hours, 

funky dietary directions, 

and 

just trying to stay on track. 

since i am the master of my track, 

one might think that i was aware of what i was trying to get accomplished.

well, it just is not working out that way. 

i was talking on the phone with my eldest recently. 

she came home from college last spring, filled with the certainty that she knew a lot. 

this quantification, nibbled at the intersection  of "everything there was to know"... 

and its sneering twin,

 " i have been on my own for a year now and know more than my parents".

who the heck knows? 

maybe she was right and i was jealous of her opening the lock on that can of solid

universal knowledge. 

i sure know as time has passed,

 and menopause introduced itself to me,

and that i am stupider than ever. 

{please remember that my brain is swiss cheese filled and teflon coated}.

{remembering things has become more challenging and filled with more pitfalls than ever.} 

daughter number one acquired a job in food service this past summer. 

it took her 3 weeks of grueling door knocking and on foot introductions. 

she was hired by 

au bon pain, as a cashier. 

anyone doing her job also needed to fill in as a salad maker, sandwich tech, 

and coffee drink barrista 

or 

work at one of the newly created outposts. 

also anytime my darling refers to the store, she blithely calls it ABP.

i call it the school of hard knocks. 

she was introduced to the scummiest of customers, 

some delightful ones too; 

picky ass ones, 

and ones that were there because no other place would let them linger for as long. 

 the academics of the  hard knocks school

 entitled the girl to find out how things really worked in 

many instances. 

her ability to be a little softer around the edges was a delightful reminder that 

i no longer needed to be the laser like focus of all nagging or irritations to her. 

others could supplant  my god given skills and 

make her see that i was not completely barking mad. 

once some perspective had entered her focus, 

we were able to converse like humans occasionally.

and now back to dropping dishes for luck and having a few left to eat from. 

i ask the girl to help me out sometimes. 

she made a sell sheet for me for my infant representative trip to the 

new york international gift show. 

she also prepared a fresh version of my business card.
this will soon be in color too. 
with flowers instead of or in addition to the beads. 
WAHOO!

and now for the braggiest part. 

she suggested that i keep a planner to keep my thoughts, 

and ideas and even some of my lists in. 

i often do these things. but they are not adequately represented. 

and remember swiss cheese is stringy when heated. 

lovely and delish flavored, yet without

ORGANIZATION.
all of those bubbles within are very randomly and organically created.

so i will take a page from little "miss organized". 

i will find a planner book to apply some rolling to-do lists in. 

after all, it was advice from a college woman. 

one that has few cracked and spun plates. 

one that has taken some shit from cafe customers, 

and one that could be onto something. 

i am not that old that i can't learn something new from 

my freshly minted 20 year old. 

she does know how not to drop dishes...(as far as i know) yet.  

especially if they are ones made of paper and from 

a chain of restos. 

thanks hal, good advice is just that. good advice. 

and now i am sending myself to sleep. 

i have fresh purpley flowers to play with in the morning. 

and orders to fill. 

and a hunt for a good planner book to use.

before i drop any more lucky plates. 

xoxo.

 w.