Lesson 130: My Next 30 Years

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss,
Happy birthday to me,
A birthday's a birthday,
No matter how old you be!

How cool is that my birthday eve is my hero, Dr. Seuss's birthday?  He would have been 108 years old this year (my favorite LOST number).  My mother must have gone into labor while Dr. Seuss was eating his German chocolate cake, blowing out his 67 candles.  I didn't make my appearance though until after midnight, therefore my birthday is March 3rd.  I actually prefer not having to share my date with my hero Dr. Seuss, because I am a numbers nerd.  3 is my favorite number and my birthday gets to be on 3-3.  How cool.

My birthday today
Brings about 130th blog post
As I sit here and write
While eating my toast.

What are my plans
For the next 30 years?
By 2042
Will I be rid of my fears?

I like things to connect.  I'm a Connector.  I don't know if that's a real term, but one I created to describe myself.  I like to connect the dots on things and see how they relate.  It is my gift.  I am great at seeing how things relate to one another.  I only missed four on my Miller's Analogies Test out in Edinboro.  Genius level.  Yet, I still have trouble adding fractions with unlike denominators.

I like to find things in life and connect the dots on them.  In fact, dot to dot coloring books were my favorite when I was a kid.  If you are one of my cousins reading this blog post, shall I remind you of the Red Crayon Incident one summer in the 1970's.  I will speak no more on the matter and hope that the guilt associated with it will bring about an extra gift from my mother to me today.  I was doing a dot to dot in the back seat of the van when told not to and I lost the red crayon and subsequently suffered undue public punishment and ridicule for it.  Scars run deep.  Can't let it go.

So, in my search for connections to make this for an interesting weekend reading, I wanted to connect my hero Dr. Seuss, my heart throb Tim McGraw, and my birthday all in one blog post.  I think I got it in a Seussical sort of way.  I found a song about 30 from The One and Only Tim McGraw, and 30 wise sayings from The one and Only Dr. Seuss.  Dots connected.

My Next Thirty Years
Plays on the picture movie
With Seussed up pictures
Of my kids lookin' all groovy

You've probably heard the song before.  It's an older one.  If you enlarge the photo, you can read some of the Seussisms.  There are some quotes I've become familiar with that I didn't know were his, like this one:








Here's my guy.  Gotta love him.  I could write a hundred blog posts about him and his interesting life.  I teach something new about him every year during the first week of March, as elementary schools often coincide their Celebrate Reading Weeks with his birthday.  But for today, I'll keep it short and ask you just to ponder where we'd be in life had he never got his first book published.

No, not Cat in the Hat.  Not even close.  It's this one.  I refer to it as Mulberry Street.  It is a 1937 publication that took him a bunch of times to publish.  It is a neat story about the street of his boyhood home.  Author's first books are often about their personal lives in disguise.  Read this one a couple of times and I think you'll see it.  I don't want to tell you just yet.  I want you to discover it for yourselves.  Swing by the children's section next time you visit the library and check it out.

I've seen numbers of rejections for this book ranging from 27 No Ways to 49 You Stinks.  Regardless, this speaks volumes about the kind of person Ted Giesel was--determined and would not take no for an answer.  He kept trying despite what seemed like insurmountable odds.  He knew his talent and was persistent.  Dr. Seuss kept the faith.  Sometimes that is all we have to hold on to.  I am sure glad he did.


Where would we be
Without Horton and the Who
The Grinch, the Cat,
and Thing One and Thing Two?

Thanks for your persistence
Your determination, Ted,
For the Lorax, pup in cup,
One fish blue and one fish red.







My birthday last year was far from happy and I am hoping for a better year this year.  On the last day of my third decade in life I lost a good friend and neighbor as well as my mother in law, rather unexpectedly, just hours apart.  I entered my 40th year with red, swollen eyes from crying.  In fact, I not only cancelled my party to attend funerals, but got jipped on my presents.  There are still some gifts I was promised that I never received and I haven't forgotten about them.

Here is one.  This is the Buckle gift card for new jeans that my sister promised to take me shopping for.  I am not much of a shopper.  I'm a Connector and a Writer, remember?  Not a Fashion Diva.  I get into that store and whirl around like my Dad at a ballroom dancing lesson.  I have no idea what to do and I need Kenyan Karen's help.  Maybe this will guilt her into taking me shopping.

Here is another.  Isn't my lamp post beautiful?  Look at it's glimmering light.  Oh the love that it radiates!  What?  You can't see it.  Here, let me zoom in closer.






Now can you see it?  Oh, you still can't?  Here, let me get a little closer yet.

OOOHHHHHH.  That's right.  IT'S NOT THERE!!!!!

That's right.  I almost forgot.  No one found the time to set that up for me.  I am a Connector and a Writer, remember.  Not an electrician.

This is what happens when your then ten year old suggests the perfect present for her mother for her 40th birthday and hubby has to make it work.  Just another gift that he decided was too high maintenance for his wife.  Perhaps you can put some pressure on him, Readers.
.

You know what?  Scratch that.  Heck, I'm a smart woman.  I can read.  I work with gifted children every day and I know that truly smart people are just determined and basically teach themselves.  Look at my first purchase as a birthday gift from me to me.  Anyone living out on Firman Road may want to invest in a back up generator of sorts.  There could be some sparks flying around my yard soon.  Burns's take cover.

Don't believe me?  Try me.  Eloise is the elephant in more ways than one.

I have to admit that I am happy this year for a few reasons.  I received some early birthday gifts in the mail yesterday and opened them.  After last year I learned the hard way that sometimes there isn't the tomorrow that you are counting on, so why wait?  This was the card in the package from my friend Tracy Southern.  Another gift she sent me is included on the picture movie.  I'll leave you to guess which one.  Consider it your thinking exercise for your weekend homework.




A book and some tunes
And a typewriter key
And another new necklace
From old 33


But the best gifts I've received I get to look at every day.  They are the faces of my three children.  They appear on the movie, as always, because they have always been the things I've wanted most in life.  Every decision I make is always, in the end, about them.  They are making me extra happy this year with their successes.  Natalie has a social life with cheer leading and running.  Ellen is maintaining her stellar academic record and is using the talents God blessed her with in her art, her music, and her kindness.  And Sam I Am, That Sam I Am!  Oh how he has been making his momma proud!  We are receiving a daily stream of awards and good reports from school like this one.  He's made almost a complete turn around in the last six months and is back to my happy and "spirited" child.  How proud I am of My Boy.

This birthday looks to be a better one.  I'm heading out now to make my last voyage on my favorite shoes--a 4.1 run in honor of my years on this earth.  In fact, I feel so good today that I may just do that twice.  I got my tunes from my friend loaded and ready on my iPod and Zombies locked and loaded ready for the chase.

Zombies?  Huh?  What is Eloise up to now?  Read on readers for my newest, quirky thing.  Please scroll down to Blog Post 129:  Run For Your Life!

Have a great weekend,
Mine is looking up,
Some new shoes, some fresh air,
And a trot with pup in a cup!

Love, Eloise