Graf #7 - Rewrite

We all know them, the half-empty, nothing ever goes right, poor me person. These people are hard to be around and they have a way of draining the life out of even the most positive of people. Well I hate to admit it, but my Mom is one of these people. I love my mom dearly but over the last several years she just seems to be getting more and more negative. She always assumes the worst and never sees the bright side to anything. The scary part for me is lately there are times I just don’t want to be around her…my own mom.

To look at my mom, you would think she had it all, but she is a negativist – negative about everything. I very rarely see my mom happy over anything and wonder if she might have some type of depression. She hates her job, hates her family (on most days), hates Maine, hates the cold, etc. Nothing is ever good enough, no matter how hard you try there is just no pleasing her. It seems like every time I talk to her she is always saying how she hates something or is mad at someone.

I finally told her that she has got to find something in life to make her happy or find out what about her life is making her so miserable and change it. Because pretty soon no one is going to want to be around her and that is very sad!

Graf #7

We all know them, the half-empty, nothing ever goes right, poor me person. These people are hard to be around and they have a way of draining the life out of even the most positive of people. Well I hate to admit it, but my Mom is one of these people. I love my mom dearly but over the last several years she just seems to be getting more and more negative. She always assumes the worst and never sees the bright side to anything. The scary part for me is lately there are times I just don’t want to be around her…my own mom.

To look at my mom, you would think she had it all. She has a wonderful husband of 30 years, a beautiful home, a healthy daughter and grandson, family and great friends. But, she is a negativist – negative about everything. Lately, I very rarely see my mom happy over anything and wonder if she might have some type of depression. She hates her job, hates her family (on most days), hates Maine, hates the cold, etc. Nothing is ever good enough, no matter how hard you try there is just no pleasing her. I wonder where did all this negativity come from and is the reason why I always try and be so positive. Whenever she gets in a really “negative” funk, I always try and point out the bright side. For example, recently she said, “I hate my job!” I responded by saying, “Hate your job, you work 3 days a week from 7am – 3pm; no weekends; if it is snowing, they don’t make you come in; they let you take weeks off at a time…what is to hate?” And she said, “Oh I don’t know Trisha, the people.”

I finally told her that she has got to find something in life to make her happy or find out what about her life is making her so miserable and change it. Because pretty soon no one is going to want to be around her and that is very sad!

Graf #6

The I-Search that stuck out to me the most was the one on weight loss. After reading the paper, I felt sorry for her. I’m not sure she went anywhere with the “weight loss” topic other than to say “weight loss” didn’t happen for her. I’m don’t think she learned anything that she didn’t already know…diet and exercise and the weight will come off eventually. I think she answered her questions on “Why I am writing,” but I don't think she found any real answers will help her with her goals. She is right, there is a mountain of information out there and not every “diet” will work for everyone. If I could tell her one thing, it would be that she didn’t put the weight on overnight and it is not going to come off overnight – find a program that works and fits her lifestyle and take it one day at a time.

Graf #5

An object that is important to me…that is a tough one. I have several people that are important to me (my son, my boyfriend, my mom, etc.), but objects, now that is tough. The one thing that I really love right now is my new coffeemaker. I’m not sure that I would normally classify it as important to me, but then I think about how I would feel if it broke and there was no coffee first thing in the morning…I’m sure I would think it was damn important then. First let me tell you that I am almost 40 and I never even had a cup of coffee until I was 33. So a lot of people find my coffee addiction a little weird. Now back to my wonderful coffeemaker. My boyfriend bought it for me in October, because he knew how badly I wanted one. It is a Keurig coffeemaker and it brews one cup of coffee at a time – the perfect cup of coffee every time! It takes “K-Cups.” K-cups are these little cup things (kind of looks like a dixie cup) and has coffee and a filter inside it. The maker has a water reservoir on the side (so it is always ready to go) and will make 3 different sizes of coffee, tea, cocoa (depending what K-Cup you put in). It is really simple to use, you open the top, put a K-Cup in and close the lid. The maker punches a hole in the top and bottom of the K-Cup. You press a button for which size and your coffee drips right into your cup. The best part is you can get coffee in every flavor imaginable: French Vanilla, Gingerbread, French Toast, Mocha Nut Fudge, German Chocolate Cake, Regular, Teas, etc. So my biggest decision in the morning is “Which flavor today?” I just love my coffeemaker and would be devastated if it broke, so I guess it is important!

Graf #4

I am a young 39 year-old mother of a 13 year-old son named Christopher. I am divorced and I have a wonderful boyfriend (seems kind of weird saying boyfriend at my age) named Tony. I have one cat named Pretty. I was born in Pasadena, California but have lived in Maine since I was six months old. Because of the fact that I wasn’t born here, my son and boyfriend insist that I am not a true Mainer. I completely disagree. I am a lifetime member with Weight Watchers – I lost over 50 pounds and have maintained my weight for over a year. I love LOUD rock music – all those classic rock and hair bands from the 80s… get me alone in my Jeep and my music is cranked. I love to travel – I have been to Scotland, Ireland, three cruises, and several places in the United States. My favorite place to go is somewhere warm and sunny or to a football stadium to see the Pats play. I am a huge New England Patriots fan and I love football. Sunday is my day to sit back and watch football and have a few beers (Miller Lite is my favorite). I love to shop and hang out with my girlfriends. I am extremely positive and will always try and find the bright side to things. One of my little quirks is that I get very excited, about what some may think are the littlest or silliest of things, like a new flavor of coffee, a new coffeemaker (by the way I LOVE my new coffeemaker…it is awesome), a new snack, or even a new ice cream, and when I get excited, I want to share my excitement over these little things with my friends and family - IMMEDIATELY.

Graf #3

My 13 Year Old Son's Bedroom Walls

Sitting on his bed and working from left to right...

• Beatles poster (displaying all their album covers)
• Mesh basketball hoop - currently holding two stuffed monkeys
• Def Leppard, Styx and Foreigner concert poster from last August
• A plastic bag from the same concert
• A New England Patriots pennant
• Simpson's poster
• (2) The Who framed posters detailing concerts from the early 1970s
• Clock (above the closet)
• M & M Racing Team Hat
• Coolidge Dogs poster (dogs playing poker)
• Tedy Bruschi poster - keychain hanging off tack of us on a roller coaster at Busch Gardens
• Abbey Road street sign above bedroom door
• Combination cork board/white board currently home to the following items:
  School letter with 3 Track and Field pins and 1 Cross Country pin
  $10.00 gift certificate to Hoyt’s Movie Theatre
  Christmas card from a friend
  A “Get Well” card
  A Halloween card
  Honors Festival Ribbon
  Don Fendler’s autograph
  Band/Chorus concert program from Spring 2007
  Starbase name tag (Rusty)
  Envelope of pictures taken during the Cross Country season
  Two dollar bill
  2007 Certificate for Cross Country
  5 dry erase markers
  13 Ribbons – (1) Cross Country; (6) Track for discus; and (6) Track for shot put
• 10 necklaces hanging from a tack
• Brewer Youth Football certificate
• Beatles Abbey Road Poster
• Framed needlepoint that hung in my bedroom when I was growing up, that reads:
  Sleep my child
  And peace
  Attend thee
  All through
  The Night

And on his windowsill sits:

• An ALF stuffed animal
• Baseball from the Portland Seadogs autographed by John Baldacci
• Autographed Foreigner CD
• Sunglasses
• Framed picture of the two of us

Wow...this is one weird teenager, where did he come from the sixties. What is up with all the Beatles stuff? And who ever heard of a 13 year old in this day and age idolizing The Who. Aren't kids these days into those other one namers, like Fergie and Usher. A Def Leppard concert - don't kids these days want to go see bands like Nickelback. ALF - how many people even remember that show from the 80s and where did he hear about it (he also has all 4 seasons of this show on DVD in his room). As retro as he is with his music and TV shows, he does seem to have some current interests in football and Nascar and he seems to like sports (and must be good) with all those ribbons hanging. He also seems a little sentimental - keeping old cards hanging on his wall, a picture of him and his mom and an old wall hanging. He sure does sound like quite the teenager!!

Graf #2

My Worst Teacher

The worst teacher I have ever had was actually last semester. Since I am an adult learner and doing the "college" thing much later in life than most people, I have a much different opinion of what a teacher needs to be and do than I did 25 years ago.

My thoughts on teaching...

First, I think a teacher should TEACH! When I am investing the time to come to class, do assignments, and leave work early to attend, I think they should at least try and teach me something. This teacher, who will remain anonymous beacuse the class was here at EMCC, never gave one lecture the whole semester. All she would do is have us read our textbooks and work in groups.

Second, I think anything that is done in class needs to be done for a purpose. Over eight classes were spent watching movies. Not educational shows, but actual movies and never once did she discuss with the class the purpose for watching them or what we were supposed to learn from watching them. I felt this was an absolute waste of my time! I can watch movies at home.

Third, I think the teacher should be knowledgeable about what they are teaching. There were several instances during a quiz when she would give a wrong answer. When it was pointed out that it was wrong by referring to actual information in the book, she would ask how many people got it wrong and then use the majority for her answer.

This class/teacher was very frustrating for me. I wanted to learn! I was excited to learn! I went to class 3 hours a week for 16 weeks and sadly I did not learn anything about the course I had signed up for. That is why she is the worst teacher I ever had...She didn't TEACH me anything. I am sure some of my classmates really enjoyed this class, there was no accountability to come to class (she never took attendance), you didn't have to complete assignments on the syllabus, you got to correct your own quizzes (which I know several people did the quiz while correcting it), and you got to watch movies. The only thing missing from this class was the popcorn.

In case you are wondering, I did receive an A for the class but I'm sure everyone did.

Graf #1

My Hands

My hands don't look like they used to. When I first look at my hands, all I see is age. There are wrinkles around my knuckles, the veins and bones are more prominent than they used to be, and there are the beginning signs of age spots. I guess this is all part of getting older, and it makes me kind of sad until I think about all the things my hands have done. They have been a nurse when my son was hurt and needed care, they have wrapped presents for Santa, they have picked up teeth for the tooth fairy, they have hid eggs for the Easter Bunny, and they have helped guide my son to be the wonderful teenager that he is. So when I take a second look at my hands, I am glad they are aging.