Approaching 2015 . . .

Hello Dear You:

What hasn't happened recently?  Confusion and reaction abound.  Citizens downed by certain police powers and today, two innocent Brooklyn cops taken out.

But as we approach another new year, there is something not confusing:
1:  A president who is leaning in (love the action to open up Cuba to us all).
2:  A hint that a femme could be the next POTUS.
3.  A recovering economy . . . and an environment with many active guardians, but who knows what the new all Republican House/Senate will damage.
4.  A "me, me, me" in unbelievably solid health.

Me, me, me.  Another semester ends at the current, local college.  Here in the Florida Panhandle, I do face continuing confusion too.  Why don't students read?  Why do some colleagues have a limited sense of humor?  And why do I keep doing this?

Whatever.

A chill comes this evening, and I am too far north of the tropics.  But soon . . .

Cheers to all things wild and wonderful :)

Kisses -
Joyce

Thanksgiving here . . . 5 months later!

   
Dear You:

Ms. Kim feeding folks at the LA Mission.  She may not have broken the internet with her recent photo deluge, but she is breaking preconceived notions.  Of course, the critical "they" no doubt say she did/does this for publicity.  Forget them.  And, once again returning to the blog after months of "teach that lit, grade those compositions, cha-cha-cha", I wish we could forget these recent events:

1.   A midterm election that went so RED the President is having to executive-order his way through the last two years of his term.
2.   A polar blast reaching down to FLA and stressing the stalwart city of Buffalo, no less.
3.   A horror -- journalists and aid workers murdered in Syria/Iraq.
4.   A rush of more techno-living and even more techno-failures.

Get off the grid.  Oh, wait.  I am composing on the grid.  Maybe that will fail too if Net Neutrality actions don't swat back corporate controls.

So, on the lighter side:

Tom Brady and the fabulous Patriots are on a cool wining streak.  This compensates for my bachelor's alum college (Auburn - those warring eagles) not making it to this new NCAA playoff situation, losing some tight contests.  But that is all about other people playing and me watching.  My sport continues to be the Hunger Games of adjuncting in higher education.  I must be high to keep slamming through this.  Upside:  fun students who talk some good talk.  Downside:  less than stellar "customers"/students who get to evaluate ME and getting all twitchy about the next semester's assignment.  Nothings changes.  Yes, the definition of insanity is . . .

What can we/I do to make everything possible and everyone unchained?
I live in another dimension during pop-soundtrack inspired run/walks.  There, on the beach and in my head, everything is possible and everyone is off the chain.
Why doesn't everyone want to live there?

The book (memoir/comedy/polemic) remains a non-start, and I still haven't learned conversational Spanish.  Blame it on the Panhandle life with much yard work, maintenance demands and driving time to get anywhere.

First things first --- get through another required jolly X'mas and put that book and Espanol on yet another New Year to do list.  2015.  Hell Yes to another year!

Time to primp and moisturize before Sunday Night Football.  "What were once vices are now habits."  Who said that?

Kisses -
The Joyce

59! I am now 59! Feelin' the "I'm ageless" denial rush!

Dear you . . .

Check out Gisele's fabulous buzz cut!  She look like Tom's twin:


What a lovely June . . . students in Composition and Women's Lit this summer are quite sharp and often fun.

But forget about them!  I am now 59 :0

When you approach 50, you start getting mail from AARP.  When you approach 60, you start getting mail from LIFE ALERT.  ("I've fallen and I can't get up.")

That's all I have to say.
Kisses -
Joyce

Happy Anniversary - one year in this zip code . . . the Panhandle chronicles!

Dear you:

Eve of Cinco de Mayo, I realize I have been here in Panama City Beach, as resident, as random adjunct faculty function, etc. for a year.   Well, my my my.

The pop-Artemis photo pasted in this entry conveys my "neighborhood" life:  the local non-workers/non-participants in anything larger than their property, annoy me and want to ruin the land.  Case in point, the part-time residents in the condo to my west (intrusive and bizarre) are obsessed with trimming the wild shrub oaks that they can simply see from their paved and dead backyard space.  Oh hell no!  This is my screening device so they can't see into my porch or windows and, more importantly, they are bird havens.  This couple, too, loves to drive back and forth in front of my beach house when the road is flooded by climate-change prompted water (I had to cancel a class this week due to deluge and road dangers) and push the crap into my yard.  Nice.  Total assholes.

In a larger sense, this Artemis avatar is my approach now as I continue to live in a strange familiar yet unfamiliar zone:  what is up with students who don't read, professors who clock-in and don't revolutionize (or unionize, but that is another story), and people in bad bathing suits?  The hilarity will continue as I close out final exams, submit grades and focus on two simple priorities:

1.  Killing the Buzz-Killers (or not being affected by them in any way)
2.  Getting a "real" job here in the minimum wage land.

Do they make workers at Bed, Bath and Beyond wear stupid uniforms?  Bad pants and polo shirts?    Let the tragic fashion begin!

The world rolls on ---- Putin in Ukraine, kidnapped girls in Nigeria, and constipated-conservative-politics baffling us all.

Turn your phones off everyone and dive in the Gulf of Mexico while you can.

 XO for now -
Ms. Fleming

NFL fun and we circle back to Brady v. Manning . . .

Hello dear you! 


Happy New Year, truly.  I intend to jump into this one, as I have all others.  Copy Tom's move:

 

General weather activity -- the polar vortex swept seriously down here to la Panhandle . . . my trusty (and frighteningly old) central heating has been working overtime.  But today, the sun was warm and the Gulf was gorgeous.

The semester has begun at the college.  All is -- as is typical in the first week honeymoon phase -- all lovely.  They are lovely; I am lovely; life is lovely.

The blue news is my bachelor's degree university (the Tigers of Auburn) did not manage to win over the Florida State Seminoles in the national championship game for young ones.  Well.  It was contested.  And good, so good, that they got that far.

Now, on to the NFL:  Brady and his Patriots will meet Manning (that awful Manning boy) and his Broncos in Denver for the AFC championship.   In the NFC, San Francisco takes on Seattle at Seattle.  Home advantages may rule here, but I am looking for the Patriots and darling Tom to not let this one go.  A signifier for me, but why I am not exactly sure.   Brady is cuter than Manning.  Doesn't that count?

Did you know I will celebrate my 59th birthday this year?  Not quite as tropical-sited as I prefer, but still . . .
there is such wonder in so many things.  And my luck seems to be holding out.   One more silver dollar.

Skating the margins of what appears to be normal,
Your Joyce