Roads Unknown

Power Move

roadsunknown — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:52:16 +0000

The hardest thing about putting everything you own in storage for two years is deciding what stays and what goes to charity. Clothes not worn in three years, wash and donate. Ditto small appliances and little tsktoksi dust collecters. Then the real packing begings.

Today my sister and her husband, four of their sons, daughter and two grand nephews helped me move my stuff out of my second story apartment into storage. Six pickup trucks loaded, along with lamps and art stashed in their club cabs. When we arrived at the 10×10 storage facility I rented and I opened it up everyone gasped. How can we do this, it’s too small? Well we did, in about 10 minutes.

Amazing, they started moving my stuff out around 10:20, drive to storage about 15 minutes, we were done at noon. My family rocks!

Miss, Won’t Miss

roadsunknown — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:50:32 +0000

With Super Tuesday coming up, I realized that there are many things I won’t miss while in Vanuatu. Political ads top the list. I don’t watch TV very often but when I do (I love House, even the reruns) the ads are for Hilary Clinton, Barak Obama and Ron Paul. Same ads, over and over again. While you folks suffer the same as we lead up to the November election I’ll be cracking open coconuts on a sunny beach.

I also won’t miss cars, traffic, unwanted telephone calls about…you name it,and paying bills

What I will miss are lunches with my brother and sister, chats with my TC friends, working at WordsWorth Books and all my friends there and NPR.

Vanuatu!

roadsunknown — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:18:15 +0000

I got my Peace Corps invitation today, YAY! I’ll be in Vanuatu as an Agro-enterprise Advisor. Orientation is April 10 – 12, Pre-Service Training is April 12 – June 19, service ends June 2010.

I most likely will be on a remote island without electricity, so this blog will fade away. But if you’d like to be one of my pen pals, I’d really appreciate it. Yep, the old fashioned way of writing letters on paper and the long, perhaps a month or more wait…and I mean before you or I receive the letter. Anyone game?

Medical Clearance from PC

roadsunknown — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:45:58 +0000

Hooray! I faxed my stress test report to Peace Corps on the afternoon of the 25th and got an email the next morning – medical clearance. And another email saying “We wanted to get in touch with you to congratulate you on receiving your medical clearance and therefore, for completing a very important part of the application process. Over the next few weeks, we will be conducting a final review of your application materials, and we will be in contact with you in the event that any additional information is needed. Once the application review is complete, we will update you on the next steps of the process.”

From what I’ve learned dental doesn’t delay the placement process, so I’m in the process and awaiting placement news. The great thing is the email was from a fellow from Inter-America Pacific Unit, so my nomination for Pacific is still under consideration. Yay.

I really want to go to Vanuatu, if I get that invite I’ll tell you why. But, no, it has nothing to do with “Survivor” being filmed there.

NaNoWriMo

roadsunknown — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:19:32 +0000

I did it! I signed up for http://www.nanowrimo.org/
It all began with the periodontist appointment. I decided I needed to have something to think about during the predicted three hours of scraping, rather than wonder what the hell the hygenist was up to. So a story emerged and now I think the small story will emerge into a larger one. And why not just try to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It doesn’t have to be a marketable novel, it’s just about writing.

I’m pumped.

Peace Corps Update

roadsunknown — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:24:50 +0000

Nothing is easy. After extensive medical and dental exams I sent off all the forms to PC on Sept. 26. On Oct. 9 I got a letter from the dental office - You need to visit a periodontist for evaluation and definitive treatment. Did that, have one more appointment on Nov. 19, and if I’ve been doing my flossing and gum massaging well I should be okay.

Then on Oct.16 I got a call from Janet at Medical. The doctor is concerned about your heart palpitations, you need to have a Nuclear Stress Test and submit a personal statement addressing your occasional palpitations. Had the test this morning. It wasn’t bad, everyone was nice. I was scared though, so PC will probably look at the test and require a heart transplant or some such. No, I doubt that.

It’s just that when you think you are tooting along well, healthy and get slapped in the face it is disconcerting. The dental was not too surprising, but the heart – yipes. So here is my personal statement:

There are two occasions I felt palpitations of note. Each time I sat down, did some deep breathing, one time meditated on calming (I was driving and pulled off the road) and the other time read “The Diary of a Worm”. When my doctor asked me if I had palpitations, I said occasionaly. I only learned I had Mitrovalve Prolapse in 2000 and never thought about my heart function until then. At the age of 54, those are occasional palpitations.

However my heart may race as I race to finish NaNoWriMo.

simplify, minimize

roadsunknown — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:51:35 +0000

In the hopes that I will someday enter the peace corps I’ve started to eliminate things from my home that I no longer need or haven’t used since I moved here over three years ago. Thank goodness I have an outlet for stuff that is still worthy of a home, my co-worker David is helping with his Bridge House’s yard sale fundraiser.

I thought I had downsized when I moved from the Ozarks to Little Rock, butno not really, and then I inherited more stuff when my mom died. My living room is stacked with stuff I can donate; movies, a VCR player, a TV, my mom’s junky jewelry, typewriter, banjo I never learned to play, knick-knacks I thought I should keep but tucked away. I won’t miss any of it. I haven’t seen any of it in three years. Hey, I can actually step into my closet now! I also have taken two bags out to the trash. And I’ve just begun.

It’s therapeutic. I feel lighter, cleaner, happier – the weight of grief unrealized is vanishing.

Peace Corps Interview

roadsunknown — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:06:43 +0000

I drove to Dallas on Sunday, there were several thunderstorms along the way and I pulled off the highway to wait out the downpour. I do not like driving in strong wind, strong rain and whipsawing semis speeding beside me. There was no rush to get to Dallas, the interview was scheduled for 11:00 on Monday. When I finally got to Dallas I drove around downtown to find the Federal Building, where my PC interview would be the next day. I was pleased to see such a lively place. People on a Sunday afternoon walking around, lots of shops, restaurants and museums open. So I decided to spend lots of money and get a hotel room downtown. NO WAY! There was a Mary Kay convention going on. No room at the Inn for this girl. I ended up driving back eastward about 10 miles to find a motel. And stayed there. Dinner at Denny’s instead of some fun local bistro.

Monday morning was lovely, I thought I allowed plenty of time to drive back to Dallas so I could explore a bit and fiind a neat place to eat lunch after the interview. It took 45 minutes to get there. Why didn’t I notice the road construction signs the day before? Who pays attention to little orange signs along the road when nothing is happening? Not I. By the time I got to the Federal Building and found a reasonable parking spot it was 10:40.

I believe in being early, never late. I sat in the PC office for 25 minutes before my interview. One thing I have to learn is time is unimportant in third world countries, my first minor lesson happened.

The interview was great, we watched a video about Peace Corps. Duh. Linda (my recruiter) then had a list of questions and had to type my answers on her laptop. It was funny, after most of my answers she said “Great” and some she said “Okay”. Hey I’m not great all the time. Ah, well.

But I do have scarce skill sets! Imagine that. My years of living in poverty as an organic market gardener are scarce skills. OOh. Yay. So I should be nominated for Farm Management/Agribusiness – Pacific Island region departing April 2008. I like that.

Applying to the Peace Corps is a lengthy process. I hope I make it.

Harry Potter the 7th

roadsunknown — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:07:54 +0000

Well this is it, the last Harry Potter book. I’m amazed that our little independent book store has so many pre-orders reserved with a credit card. We don’t try to compete with the big box stores, Amazon, or even Kroger with their deep discounts. Ours is a modest 20% and most customers are surprised we’re offering a discount! The loyalty of our customers is astounding. If you can, please shop at independent book stores, be loyal to your community.

Our party should be fun, a magician and balloon artist, dancers en costume, a costume contest and refreshments. I should start baking those cookies. A customer loaned us some really cool Halloween type cookie cutters.

Tell me what party you are going to, what’s happening in your neighborhood. I heard the local Barnes is having a sleep/read over night. An indie in Fayetteville, AR is re-creating the wizard shopping center in HP 1 in their parking lot. How cool!

I am not a Harry Potter fan, but I love the excitement the books create and how so many families, from grandparent on down, share the books.

I won’t be at our party. Someone has to open the store the next morning. We’ll be just as busy then as the folks who sold books at 12.01.

Fun Lit quiz

roadsunknown — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:27:19 +0000

This is fun, I did fairly well – 8 of 10. How did you do?