The First Step

I have found a topic that I am passionate about. Others get livid over animal rights, for some it's the homeless, and for others it is victims of natural disasters. For me, it is victims of the sex trade. I had heard a little here and there, but nothing jarred me so much as the movie Taken, with Liam Niesen, in which his daughter is abducted on a European vacation and sold into the prostitution underworld. Since that movie, I have been moved to do something, but where to start? And how to help?


Education is always key, so I have started trying to gather all the facts I can, and figure out a way that I can either contribute to a cause already in motion, or make waves myself.  I just finished reading The Road of Lost Innoncence, by Somaly Mam, an amazing woman who has managed to make plenty of waves herself.  She was sold into prostitution in Cambodia, and after managing to free herself, she has been working to free thousands of other girls in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Viet Nam where the sex trade in little girls and young women runs rampant.   Somaly has started a couple of organizations to help girls and young women in these countries not only get out of prostitution, but learn skills to sustain themselves without having to go back to the life they were originally forced into for lack of other options.   The organization here in the U.S. is http://www.somaly.org/  This is just the first step in finding how I can make a difference to these girls all over the world.  The first step of many.

Live a little better

A while ago, a man at the grocery story went out of his way to take my grocery cart to the cart coral for me.  He was going in the opposite direction and it was such a small gesture but it completely brightened up my day.  A day that had been mired in crap from the get go anyway.  He was my knight in shining grocery cart. 
More recently, I suited up to shovel my drive way, only to open the garage door and find my neighbor just finishing up in my driveway with his snowblower!  The snow was thick and heavy and he saved me about 45 minutes to an hour at least.  Just a little extra kindness thrown out there.

Here's my challenge, actually LOOK for ways to brighten someone's day.  Return someone else's grocery cart for them, stick another quarter in the meeter, smile at a stranger.  Do something out of the usual vain of do-good-ness. 
Get into the habit of doing these things and you might surprise yourself, and others.

7 words

I recently gave my creative writing class the assignment to summarize their lives in 7 words, no more, no less.
Here are a couple of my examples:

The world's an oyster, I'm still sand.

The world and I in a tango.

So far, so wonderful, bring it on!

Denver Photo Safari

A couple weeks ago, a friend and I ventured out into Downtown Denver armed with our cameras and an eye for the odd angle.  I have my little digital camera that badly needs a tripod, so quite a few of my shots turned out blurry, though a few of my favorites did come out.  I'm adding a couple Denver Haikus to complete the mood.


Gorgeous profile,

daring on her scooter,

everything I've wanted to be.

Orange paint smeared

bright hibiscus

 on a city bus window.

Comedy by Broccoli

In high school, I did a famous monologue for auditions known as "the tunafish monologue".  Google it and you'll get Laughing Wild, by Christopher Durang.  A woman who is a few bananas short of a bunch gets very upset that a man is standing in front of the cans of tuna fish that she wants to get to, and becomes irate that he doesn't sense her needs.  She ends up wacking him upside the head and, I still remember the line from high school, screams at him, "would you kindly move, a$^h*!#!!!"

I met this woman last week in a King Soopers - off Broadway - of all places.  I was minding my own business over the broccoli when a woman stopped me to rant about how it was so difficult to get around in these places.  "I mean, if it's not these stupid signs and all the produce, it's the morons by the hamburger."  She goes on to explain that she was cooling her head in the produce section because she'd just had an 'incident' over in the meat department.  This couple was just standing there, mulling over the meat and paying no attention whatsoever to this woman.  She yelled at them, "move the F&*#$ out of my way already!" and was appalled when they did not respond favorably.  She asked me, "do I really have to say 'excuse me' all the time?"

All the while I am imagining the tuna monologue and wondering if I said the wrong thing would she whack me with a yam, so I opted for smiling and nodding and inching toward the onions and escape.  She went back over to the hamburger, and I assume she got what she needed because I never heard a store announcement for "code pink in the meat department," or, "cleanup in aisle 14, by the tuna fish."

Out of the Box

Back in April and May when I was trying to determine my new direction, I was trying to fit myself into a tight little box - certain job skills, certain salary requirements, certain resume enhancements, etc.

I have found that happiness, elation, and opportunity are plentiful and overwhelming - outside that little box. I took what I thought was a step back to a simpler life with less money, and have instead taken a giant leap forward - above and beyond. I am in my element in the classroom, am finally teaching creative writing which is something I've always wanted to do, and opportunites seem to be camping on my doorstep. So here's to getting rid of the boxes, and daring to be happy.

I'm Back!

My very long absence has been due to...laziness, job/career changes, multiple entrepreneur ventures, 2nd complete full draft of my novel! and other little life crises and adventures. So, to catch up -

I gave my old job the "bird" and quit when I was told that everything I'd created, all the new programs and all the children I'd reached, had been a waste of time. Now I'm teaching ESL for adults and loving it! And I'm getting quite the education myself in a variety of cultures, Saudi Arabian in particular.

I checked another item off my bucketlist in September. I went with a friend to Steamboat Springs for a ride in a hot air balloon! Amazing! Thousands of feet in the air with out an inflatable exit raft, floaty cushions or even a seat belt, and I was not the least bit afraid. Even leaning over and out of the basket for photos. And Steamboat springs was a fabulous place to have that little adventure too.

I'm working on starting up one business with some old colleagues - along the lines of financial literacy, and also starting up another with my own handmade works of art - bags and necklaces at the moment.

I have finished the 2nd full draft of my novel! Every step from here is an accomplishment for me, and record breaking!

I've had a change in scenery as far as friendships go, but all for the better. I think the hot air balloon is the perfect metaphor for my life this year - how much more buoyant I feel after losing some dead weight.

And it has been my pleasure and privelege to be able to design a syllabus and curriculm for creative writing for my ESL students, starting tomorrow! We're starting with blogs, and so, luckily, I'll be forced to post more often. And because I think my life has gotten more interesting...hopefully so will my posts!