At the Museum...

They say it will rain, but it looks sunny now! We are at the Museum and I am saving money by not going on the attraction but the other kid's babysitter, well...l i owe her one. She took one for the TEAM!. ut oh?

So you know I love museums, and NYC! Explore, some are free, life is good. JUST TO LEARN!

Besides, when you are with extra people, you can people - watch! You enjoy just standing back, and watching others as you sort of monitor your kid or kids! Would love LOVE love to do this esp at an ART museum! That way I would be so be like CAMERON on Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where he just falls into the picture at the Chicago Art Museum.

AND...speaking of CHICAGO!!!! Gotta go GOTTA GO! I want to go there, explore, trace my ROOTS, and see another cosmopolitan city. Yeah! I do love that Travis that writer extroirenaire biked there, seeing the city as no one can see except a COURIER! LOVE IT

Ok. Going now.

D Now, as I re-read this (July 2013), I don't even know who the babysitter is or was, or who I was with at the museum. What I do know is...I would love to WORK for communications/ or a museum, or in Education. Or in Media. And I still love Museums! And I still LOVE NYC, but...i found a new love...The Land Of Enchantment...New Mexico. And who knew it would rain ALL July!? So cool. About 69 degrees tonite after a terrific storm yesterday (july 14), and just cloudy, a bit humid, and nice!!! New Mexico has arts, museums, buses (but not that great) and...no subways. Just life is good. DIANE

Multiple ME's We went to see Despicable Me (TWO) and the rain was so intense, yeah it rains in New Mexico! that we could not. My point being, there are two me's now...Froggyloc55 and Froggyloc@yahoo dot com who is blogging as this Goggle account demands. I haven't written in awhile. No apple-gies. No apologies. I have been tied up, busy, and non-word-a-ly prolific. I have a GOAL accomplished---I have a Master's Degree now!! DIANE

Famous People

You might say I am just like most who adore and enjoy meeting famous people, or talking about famous people AS IF I was friends with them. Truth is, like probably 55% of people, I get shy when I do see or meet someone famous. I would not want to ask them for an autograph, probably never go up to hug them or get a photo with them (my mom tried). And I am just shy. But the other truth is, I know some really cool and down to earth people, and they are famous. My best story is meeting Denzel Washington. It was April 29, 1992. Our high school where I was teaching Language Arts had this pretty cool thing, a get out the vote activity. Big and famous people came to our school and played basketball against the staff. At that time, I was still not only in pretty good shape, but I also had just Nutricized so I was not afraid to shoot some hoops with stars. I also had been the JV Girls Basketball coach so I was reknowned as, well, a coach. And a popular gal. I stood next to Denzel. He was shorter than I. I really at that time did not know his work on screen that well, so I wasn't star-struck, but I remember he was nice to me. He said something sweet and nice to me, and then we played baskEtball together. Well, as a girl (woman) I really wasn't allowed on the court THAT long...lol...but it was fun. This all took place after school, at 2 or 3 pm. About an hour into it, people started buzzing about the news. They said, "You all better get home now..." Huh HUH? The Rodney King verdict came in and the officers were not considered bad guys....acquited I believe is the word. It was the second Watts Riots, also called The Rodney King RIOTS!? But now my famous people include Greg Gombert. Yeah man, I am putting you out there because you were my neighbor in those apartments and you had pizzaz but I SWEAR you also ran from me too. I think it was cuz our dog (Weasel) scared your kind girl dog. We talked intellectually, When I met you the second time, which took about two weeks or more!, I already figured out your name using Google. But I just hinted at stuff, and you knew about Jack Keroauc and Allan Gingberg and my beatniks. You'd gone to school in Colorado, a school FOUNDED by 'em! WAAAY COOL. And you had written a book which i was guessing you were liveing off its royalties cuz i never saw you go to work. AND you used to teach for ABQ schools. A teacher like me. Cool cool. So now my new famous person was just on TV. At age 19, he is the youngest dude running for Rio Rancho Board of Education! Extremely articulate, well-mannered and charming, (Charles) ALEX WEIMER is a star. I can see him being a strong figure in politics already. And his great knowledge of law and judicial system from his years already spent working are peacefully and consisely narrated when he tries to handle issues about the RRPS.net people (rio rancho). More power to ya, Alex. And to famous people.

BIGGEST LOSER new season/ Happy New Year

We are watching The Biggest Loser, Reality TV together as a family. It is our last day with Miss Sandy, my mother in law, and honestly she is half watching, preparing to return to NYC, and our kid watched what she could but she returns to school from her winter break tomorrow. So off to bed. The show is significant on many levels: My beloved dreams and wishes to be ON the show, but regrets (and makes me sad) to know she says she wouldn't trust having me at home only with our kid, if she got chosen ever. She couldn't be away from home. That long. And it kinda adds onto the lap band, many diets she has done, done well at, tried, and just remains overweight. Like me. Obese. Blah. For awhile, Sarah, my better half, and I used to watch the show a lot together. It was motivating, but we'd eat, and laugh, and enjoy the show together. As well, we are thrilled beyond belief, well, at least I am, that Jillian Michaels is OUT. She is a known lesbian, and has two kids now. So to me that is a huge victory. So watching it we are a bit in love with her, and also motivated (and me, scared) by her style. So, today, we watched our kid and her good friend went up Sandia Crest and did some sledding in the snoff! (Snow). Honestly we just watched. It was 6000 feet and I did gather old sleds and recycle them in our SUV (as trash) (sorry Andrea), and yeah I did walk around more (that what?) well, I felt bad NOT sledding but didn't wanna break something. At home, down from the mtn, our kid wanted to use her xmas bike with our nice neighbor kid around the short block....I walked with them three mabbe four times. I tried to run. I did good. I want to RUN that short block some day. SOME DAY THIS YEAR> Happy New Year. Biggest LOSER! diane

Pinnacle Apt part 2

What if, I were to ask The name of, Those "friends" I meet and grow to love, when I walk my kid's dog? Would that ruin the friendship? The stop and say "Hi" on the way to a pooping spot? The link that has us connected by dogs only, and by a few words of meeting, only? I fear it would. So I keep the distance and don't smell hineys. Then someday, I will never know my friend's names. And my better half will say, "They were just acquaintances anyway, Diane." D

Pinnacle Apartments I love the luxury of living at these Pinnacle Apts. I often talk or think to myself, "All my years I have never lived in such a NEW apt, with not one but TWO sparkling free pools, a 24 hour small gym i *could* use if I wanted to and green grass on grounds the roam and roll and meander around!" It is with sadness that I say this. Soon we will be (hopefully) moving into our first (but small) house. I felt this: that since my mom had owned a house, some wood place on Damien Avenue in Chicago, and had a hard time with it and selling it, that I was not going to own a house. Not for my generation. I have lived in apts or back houses or rental houses for all my life, and only fell in love with home ownership and ...parenthood in the recent decades. While being a Daddy Dyke or Meema is outrageously AWESOME, being responsible for a H. O. U. S. E. is already consumming my weekends and stressing me out, not to forget adding bills and stress to my whole family! Swamp cooler, detailed painter who painted and painted so I had to be UP there to stupervise...with the kid....and no A/C and really nothing to do. My point is, it is not until I find my Princesses who say once they turn 40, I MUST HAVE A HOUSE that I direct my focus towards that goal. And my real point is, walking my kid's dog our dear Weasel, around this property more than any other, more than Glen Oaks New York City, has endeared me to the COMMUNITY here at Pinnacle. Here are a few stars I have met: The guy with Penny. He has been avoiding me and Weasel for 3 or more months. Finally FINALLY I met him and guess what? He was taught by Allen Ginsberg and he knows about Beatniks and Naropa, a wild university in Boulder Colorado. It is weird when within say, 10 minutes we both revealed to ourselves stuff about dogs, and families and life. That rocks! I cannot pocket how cool it was to FINALLY meet someone who likes the books n poetry I like! in person. His face was worried and wrinkled as we met at the mail box area. So much reminds me of Azusa Pacific University were we had PO boxes and gathered there to chat. His coper coloured dog, Penny is a girl, was rescued, and he almost was able to rescue her brother but he had been put down 4 days before. Sad. Part of his story, however, He did live in NY, but up in Buffalo; he also lived in Boulder CO for about 10 years, and only moved here to Pinnacle about 2 years ago. He holds custody to his kid, and I am 90% sure his daughter was the one who hugs, sits on the lap and giggles with her best friend, a girl, at the pool. Hmmm? He is always walking around, similar times to me, so I would assume he doesn't work. Like me. And he is an artist....writes some, creates music more. Just fantastic. What connects people to move FROM NY to here, not the South, but not Arizona and not even Colorado? He says he doesn't like it here, but he does like CO and he intends on retiring at a beach house. Which means....no middle of the USA stuff for him. He also added that he is almost 50, which ... which....means he is like, my age!> There are more characters I have met. Which is not to say me, often bra-less, is also not a character when I walk my kid's dog. Six times a day. Cuz he is a terrier and really needs to get out like this. And so that is how I meet people. AND FIND A COMMUNITY that I may miss when I move. AGAIN. D

Teaching Reading There are so many facets to Reading and Education. Back in the old days, college, it was one class. I remember gleams of it, but even the main idea was off base. Now, learning from the internet at Grand Canyon University, I am amazed, sometimes overwhelmed, and glad to be getting a great percentage grade, and to be strengthening myself to work for a school (or a company) as a Curriculum and Reading Coach. What it takes to be a worker is huge. It is a titanic responsibility and a gift and art. As a teacher in Los Angeles, I coined a phrase and put it on a button. It has been my personal Main Idea for years. ENGLISH---Yearn To Learn. By this I mean that the joy kids get from learning is something that gets them to come back. That intrinsic "good feeling" is a great thing. As well, yearning, truly desiring to learn, is not only a great motivation, it also is a reward in itself. Add to that the thrill teachers feel when they see the light go on. It's all worth it. March 2013. THAT is WHEN I will have my Master's Degree!!! Diane