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

Newest of the new years!

  

Dear you:

Just a few hours away from the eve of 2014.  Join me, Anderson and Kathy via screen.

I cannot promise the rule shown on Mr. Cooper's sign shown above will be obeyed.

Let it rip!

Kisses,
Me

Another semester down and done - can it be 2014 on the way?

Hello dear you!

Yes.  Here in the Panhandle, I wrapped up a full fall semester at the new college -- composition, American Literature, and some sort of strange reading-prep course (which was peopled with many adorable types who really didn't need remediation).   This is another show closed (until spring semester gives me another gig and gaggle of students) and it featured:  bad girls who fought each other Jerry Springer style in class, literature students who didn't find it necessary to read the texts, formidable paper writers among the "let me pass this course" crew, and a generally surprising success rate.  According to me.   I may or may not be teaching this coming spring -- enrollments and the usual factors to be considered-- so I press on to the 2014 project.  Any suggestions there?



Today's posting photo:

  Yes, I am one of those shoppers who randomly purchased something at Target between Nov. 27 and now.  And yes, that puts a target on me for identity theft etc. since the newsworthy break occurred.  Something like 40 million shoppers got their card numbers (both credit and debit) hacked.     I have no concrete news of strange transactions, but I am screaming with my 40 million friends:   OH HELL NO!!!!!

Bad time of year to be checking your accounts every three seconds.

Tra la.

Seeing Mom for Christmas, in her Rehab-hospital world.

And then, the New Year here in Beach World.  The theme for 2014:  the year of inappropriate behavior.  Why not inspire something out of my current busy-survival-but-chilled-out mode.

Continue the struggle :)

Ms. Joyce here, there and the next place . . .

November!!??

 

Dear you:

Two months have passed since my last mini-entry, and you can blame the gap on fall semester biz:  Composition, American Literature, and a very strange "basic reading" class to teach.  Here in La Panhandle, at "GCSC" (abbreviation will suffice), I am grateful for the gig and actually surprised enough work came through.  Meanwhile, a flurry of goo spins us around:  a killer typhoon this week, internet system dramas halting the ACA implementation, and the usual suspects shutting down the government to "protect us" from that Affordable Care Act.  Clearly, the resistance is all about the President.  The star of this fiesta is the man from Texas featured in the telling photo above.

Seriously, Dude.  What are you doing with that rifle and ammunition-clip-looking thing?  Going after dancers, professors and ACLU members?

He should provide LOTS of comedy in the next election cycle.
Crazy Cruz.

Beach-life still rules.   The Gulf is clear and blue-green wonderful.  The water is cooling now, but I shall buy a wetsuit for full immersion.   However, yes, I am slightly alienated here, well, largely alienated. (Reading the late David Foster Wallace's biography and essays again reminded me of a term he would say applies:  solipsism. I avoid "going there", but trips to the college or Walmart -- OHN-- aren't that stimulating.  Whatever.)   However, it is worth it, keeping the neighbors at bay.

Gratitude month is here.  Thankful.  Quickly followed by the horror of America's obsession with Christmas.  About that, I saw a local commercial featuring a car salesman whose southern accent would rival the Duck Dynasty cast.  He droned on and on about how his business was "Christmas friendly" and then the camera turned to his children.  It gets worse.  The well-rehearsed offspring then chanted, "Happy Birthday Jesus."  Where the hell am I?  Really, I know they must be good people, but something about this huge demonstration of BELIEF (as opposed to FAITH) creeps me out. 

It's a brave new zip code :)
Must run for TV news input.

Love,
Joyce Here and Now

All is well . . . but location oddities continue here in the Panhandle :)

  Hi you!

In Reese's movie, her character says at one point:  "you need a passport to come down here."
And that is what I am saying too, referencing some of my confusing encounters here and ESPECIALLY when I drive up to visit Mom in not so sweet and certainly not "home" Alabama.

All is really (seriously) well as this adventure continues.  The local, fabulous college has loaded me up with a rich roster of classes (from American Literature to Composition) and even as the rain falls and falls and falls, I am staying afloat.

So . . . the world:
What the hell is up with Syria?
Does that Kruz dude from Texas really think he can shut down the government?
Why on earth did the Patriots lose to the Detroit Lions this week in a preseason game?

As I ponder those head-tilting questions, I will say goodnight for now.
Just rushing.
And being.
And loving my dips in the way warm Gulf of Mexico.

Kisses -
Ms. Fleming