T is for Turnip Exchange

Have you heard about the Stalk Market? What about Daisy Mae- the snot-nosed pig that sells turnips.
Daisy's grandmother grows the turnips and they make a lot of Bells ($) on their crop.

My niece, Mary, lives on her own island of St. Thomas. She's spent a great deal of time creating her own relaxing oasis. The problem is that it takes a bunch of Bells to live that super sweet life. Fortunately, Mary has everything figured out.

Buying Daisy Mae's turnips doesn't always bring the big bells at her local Nook's Cranny. But then she found out about the Turnip Exchange. The real money is made when Mary travels to other islands and sells those turnips for more money. Whereas, she may make a mere 75 Bells selling turnips on her own island she can turn big Bells on another island where they sell for up to 670. Of course, it costs a few Bells or Nook mile tickets.

That's life on Animal Crossing. If you found yourself confused as you read this post you'll know how I felt when I listened to Mary describe the Turnip Exchange to the rest of the group.

Life Lesson: Buy low, sell high.

S is for Sailing

Sailing class is a great example of how book learning doesn't always transfer well to real-life experience.

I took a sailing class during my junior year of college. The classroom stuff was pretty easy, although a few of the knots posed a challenge at first. Other than that, I had no problems identifying the parts of the boat we would be sailing. I understood it was never referred to as rope- it was a line. Finding oneself "in the irons" is not a good thing and if your sails are luffing it's time to trim those things.

One day we stepped out of the classroom do take a look at the 540s we'd be sailing. It was our chance to rig the sails, place the centerboard, and see what things looked like in 4-D. My partner and I did a pretty good job getting everything in place- so good, that our instructor thought we should step in the boat at the dock to show everyone how we would position ourselves.

After we climbed in we were for quite a shock as he untied the lines, gave a quick kick to the side of the boat, and pushed us off into the St. Mary's River with nothing more than a wave and a "Have fun ladies!"

Yes, that's when I found out sailing in a boat is much different than reading about sailing in a classroom.

We survived the experience and even passed the class with a few bumps along the river. I learned a little about sailing but more importantly, I learned I like floating around in a canoe much better.

Life Lesson: Learning is a mixture of lessons and experiences.

R is for Rose Grower

I had a collection of jobs in my youth and a few had something to do with flowers. As a 14-year-old, I spent weekends sitting behind a row of white plastic buckets full of a variety of flower arrangements. In some ways it was a pretty easy job that involved a good deal of sitting outside. The difficulties arose when the weather didn't cooperate.  Sitting outside all day is one thing but sitting outside in the rain all day with nothing more than a poncho makes for a crappy day at work.

Then there was the summer that I worked for a local rose grower. That position involved working for a family-owned company that grew red roses for florists in the Baltimore area. It wasn't my favorite summer job. First of all, I had to be at work at 7:00 pm- an extremely early hour for a college student. Secondly, I didn't work with anyone close to my age. There were three of us besides the owner that worked together. The one senior member had been there long enough to remember the owner when he was just a boy tagging along with his dad. The second lady was about 30- ancient as far as I was concerned.

There was a rhythm to a day among the roses. The morning meant time in the greenhouse with a heavy shirt that covered my arms, leather gloves, and a pair of clippers to snatch the budding roses off the bush at exactly the right time. Clipping too early meant they couldn't be sold to the local wholesalers. Clipping too late meant they were trash or gifts to take home. Roses held too long weren't a big problem but clipping too early meant a loss of money.

Once the roses were cut they were sorted by size and eventually wrapped up together in groups of 25. By 3:00 pm the cut for the day was packed and ready to head off to the wholesaler.

 It wasn't until the end of the summer that I found out I was close to being fired my first week- I lost a lot of money that week. "I didn't think you'd ever figure it out," my boss said with a smile.

The next summer I found myself a job that started later in the day.

Life Lesson: The perfect job is hard to find.

Q is for Quadragenarian

So, quadragenarian isn't exactly the word for the 40th anniversary of something but I'll take it for today's anniversary.

It was forty years ago today that I donned a cap and gown to walk across the stage set up on the football field of my high school.  My memories of the day are few. The morning started with a baccalaureate mass in the school auditorium and was followed by time spent in the staging area classrooms on the lower level of the school.

My group was a bunch of other kids who, like me, had last names that started in B. At the age of seventeen, I wasn't all that nostalgic about leaving. I was more interested in the next stage of my life. First, there would be a celebration week at the beach, followed by a long summer at home, and then finally packing up and going off to college.

Forty years later, I'm not all that nostalgic about high school but I can get reminiscent of all the life that has happened since then. The places I've lived and worked, the people I've encountered along the way have certainly shaped the person I am today. For that reason, I'll take a moment today to remember the girl who walked across that stage and started on her journey through higher education, work, friendships, and all in all, a pretty darn good life.

Life Lesson: Life rolls on, even when we don't think about it.

P is for Procrastination

Procrastinating is my superpower. I developed the power in college and have done my best to maintain my skill throughout my life.

I've always convinced myself that I needed the urgency of a deadline to get my "get up and go" going. Of course, I usually regret all the procrastination. Yesterday and today, I spent time pulling up weeds that had snaked their way through the cracks between the bricks on my patio.

I've been staring those weeds down for a few weeks now. Of course, there was always something that kept me from getting out there and pulling-- it looked like rain, or my back was tight, or wait, don't I have a few games of Words With Friends to catch up on?

By noon today the patio was cleared of weeds and swept. It looked pretty good, so good in fact that I spent about two hours sitting out back reading this afternoon.

Life Lesson: Stop procrastinating!

O is for Oh My!

Like many others, I've used some of my quarantine time to revisit old habits- like exercising on a more regular basis.

Back in the early 90s a few of my housemates would gather several nights a week in the living room.  Someone would pop a VHS tape in the VCR and we would sweat our way through a few different exercise tapes.  There was "Eight-Minute Abs" and or other standby, "Buns of Steel."  We ended the session with a few different arm exercises on our own.

Earlier this week, my sister sent me a YouTube video called, "Ten Minute Arms."  It took me a while but I located my hand weights and set my laptop up on the bar to give my flabby arms a bit of a workout. The exercises were familiar- they were the same ones my housemates and I were doing thirty years ago. I suppose that means they're classics. The weight I was using this week was certainly a little lighter than in my youth, but hey, you've got to start somewhere, right?

The arm exercises had me thinking about Buns of Steel and the blonde-haired instructor, Greg Smithey. Fortunately, I was able to find a copy of the original VHS recording on YouTube. So tonight, I awkwardly lowered myself to the hard floor and jumped back in. It was just as tough as I remember it being- even more so now since I'm a tad older.

The other thing I remember about Smithey's exercises is how much my legs and butt felt the next day when we first started working out along with the tape. I fully expect to wake up tomorrow feeling a little sorer. Yes, it will hurt but no pain, no gain, right?

Life Lesson: Do something today that your future self will thank you for.

N is for Nice to Know

Our English meeting was wrapping up today when Tracey posed a question to the group: "How's everybody doing with all this?"

Everyone took a moment to put away their "work face" and reflected. We shared our thoughts, our worries, and our anxieties about what's happening now and what is still to come.

A moment later our school principal and assistant principal signed onto the meeting to say hello and answer questions.  They shared staffing concerns and their own thoughts on what next fall may look like. Before we all signed off, Tracey posed the same question to them.

"We were having a little group therapy here before you signed on.  How are you both doing with all this?"

Both administrators were open and honest.  There were feelings of anxiety and motivation issues but there were also realizations.  Our principal spoke of the highs and lows of her journey through the pandemic but she ended with the idea that it's a time to reset, reflect, and reboot.

It's so easy to sign onto a video meeting and look like everything is going well. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's done that. Just knowing that I'm experiencing the same feelings of others is helpful. It reminds me that we will all get through this together.

Life Lesson- Hard times are easier when we go through them together.