Blogophilia 39.16: Staying in Good Grace

Marvin Martian says: Greetings, Dear Earthlings and Fellow Blogophilians!! Welcome to Week 39 of Year 16 in Blogophilia! Oh happy days – SPRING is finally here! And it’s the last week of Season 3 – next week, we start the final and 4th season of Year 16!

Blogophilia group on Facebook here and on WordPress – blog topic parameters right here & how blogophilia works over here.

Hard Bonus: Incorporate a quote or line by Rumi

Easy Bonus: Mention your favorite spring flower

Royal Rumble

I don’t know… Sometimes it’s weird with Staying in Good Grace – so, when at work, you should be professional & get along with your peers, but there are those who go to compete in a popularity contest and I’m not about that. Once in my mid 20s, I worked at a burger joint. The other people wanted to go to a bar to drink. I don’t drink a lot, but used to enjoy a little bit. As the pitchers went down, the more they ranked on the head manager, and I basically refused to participate in that conversation. So I stopped hanging out with them after work hours. Same head manager put me on for extra hours during mid-term exams then took me off the schedule for spring break. My attitude was yeah, I know they’re trying to make me quit, I hung in there to get as many hours as I could for as long as I could. So when it came to terminating me, the head manager says (after taking me on & off the schedule, rearranging, etc.) that I’m regressing instead of progressing, and how I don’t seem to “fit in with the rest of the team”. Um, my job was out on the floor, while everyone else was behind the counter… that supposedly wasn’t it, I just raised an eyebrow. Oh well.

I’ve had other similar instances where it seemed I didn’t fit with the rest of the people. My own mother even ranked on the fact that I ought to care about what other people think of me. Well, the boss liked me enough to hire me, and I go there to work to the best of my ability, not brown nose, not be the pet employee, etc. Eventually, feeling stuck in healthcare as an aide, I made the move to go into an office as a medical secretary, but that didn’t happen… Funny thing is, I’m a receptionist at a nursing home, so I’m still in health care to a point. It’s just my skills can transfer to any industry. Anyway, as life’s situation changes, it seems as if I’m finally now, reliable enough for my current boss to work with me. I am grateful. I just try to do my best with what I have & it’s actually good enough. While I don’t get to do music all of the time, maybe that’s good. “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do“. Rumi

But maybe, like wild strawberry & wild columbine, spread goodness to others, human & nonhuman, animals & plants, etc. Sometimes I will stumble & maybe act out, but… hey, perfection is overrated, right? Wishing you all well.

Blogophilia Week 38.16 – Good Fortune

From the house of Marvin Martian: Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Dear Earthlings and Fellow Blogophilians!! Welcome to Week 38 of Year 16 in Blogophilia! Make sure you wear green on St. Paddy’s Day, lest you may get pinched! 😉

Blogophilia Facebook group and on WordPress blog topic parameters & how it works

Hard Bonus: Mention a mysterious location or haunted place

Easy Bonus: Include a gold or silver coin

Leprechaun O’path

We could all use some Good Fortune. I am fortunate that my place of employment is being cool about my work there. With this major surgery, I was able to get this weekend off, and will have the opportunity to make it up to my co-worker later in the month. And because I will be able to pick up an extra silver coin or even some gold coins later!

Winslow School

I’d like to know more about Winslow School, originally Racine’s 3rd Ward school. At it’s former location, people, especially students have seen apparitions & more. When I was about 19, I was 1 of 6 college students to go there to “internationalize” the school. My college contacts from the International Student Organization included a guy from Saudi Arabia to go into 5th grade, a guy from the Philippines in 4th grade, a Cantonese guy in 3rd grade, a Pakistani gal in 2nd grade, Mandarin Chinese gal in 1st grade, and I took kindergarten (both AM & PM0. At the end of the school year, we came back for their open house when all the parents came, also. The artwork, projects, etc. were so fun to look at.

East Meadows Cemetary

The next place is East Meadows Cemetery. There is a West Meadows way out in the county, but I don’t know about that one. East Meadows started off being kind of like a Potter’s Grave for unclaimed family members & still born babies before some compassion went into those babies’ families. Many got moved to West. I can’t be for sure, but some of the homeless people who have passed are rumored to be buried here, and especially if anyone has unresolved issues, who knows.

I’m not one to really believe in spooks, but, let’s face it. If our spirits live on past our bodies, where do they go? Not everyone goes to an afterlife, so are these haunts in purgatory? Don’t know they aren’t physical anymore? I have questions…

So, what are you going to do?

UW-Parkside Wind Ensemble & Community Band

The Wind Ensemble & Community Band

Under the direction of Laura Rexroth

Musician, Conductor, Educator.

w/guest conductor, Mike Madonia

Thursday, March 13 7:00pm

Bedford Concert Hall

Tickets HERE

March from “Symphonic Metamorphosis” – Hindemith

The Seal Lullaby – Whitacre

Three Stanzas of Plum Blossom – Chan

Women of the Podium March – Allen

Ash – Jolley

Cathedrals – Salfelde

If you don’t come, you’re missing a great concert & show. The people in the band do this for the love of playing music and are just as professional sounding as any paid classical group. Be there or be square!

Blogophilia Week 37.16 – Moonglow

Marvin Martian says Greetings Dear Earthlings and Fellow Blogophilians!! Welcome to Week 37 of Year 16 in Blogophilia! Beware the IDES OF MARCH this Saturday, and be on the lookout for the Worm Blood Moon!

Hard Bonus: Incorporate a song title or lyric by Pink Floyd

Easy Bonus: Use the word “serendipity”

Pepper Cheese Moon

Midnight walks under the Moonglow of the worm blood worm

Whether the sun will fall in the evening

All will be in the balance of night & day – it’s serendipity

Blogophilia 36.16: Curious Minds

Marvin Martian says Greetings and Salutations, Earthlings and fellow Blogophilians!! Welcome to Week 36 of Year 16 in Blogophilia! Welcome March, as we countdown to spring. Today we explore the topic of curiosity!

Blogophilia group on Facebook HERE & blog topic parameters on WordPress HERE

Hard Bonus: Incorporate a Jimi Hendrix lyric or quote

Easy Bonus: Include a state capital

Ze Hand

I guess it’s better to have Curious Minds than Criminal Minds. I’d rather bring you an episode of humor, useless factoid, or a lift of your spirits than an episode of investigation. Because if I was, I’d have to tell you “I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time – I’ll give it right back to you one of these days, hahaha” (Voodoo Child – Electric Lady album 1968) from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Blogophilia 35.16: Until the Twelfth of Never

From Marvin Martian: Greetings and Salutations, Earthlings and fellow Blogophilians!! Welcome to Week 35 of Year 16 in Blogophilia! We are finishing up February and heading into March this coming week. We are guessing many of you are ready for some spring weather soon! :)

Blogophilia on Facebook HERE and blog topic parameters & how it works on WordPress HERE

Hard Bonus: Incorporate a lyric from Soundgarden

Easy Bonus: Use the phrase “life is short”

City of Lights & Reflection

Soundgarden "Hunted Down" from Down on the Upside album 1996

You smile as you look in the mirror

Tears have left your eyes

Your face has a different exterior

Permanent disguise

Life is short, depending on how you define it... When we are young, time lasts forever, but moves faster as we get older. Some people don't make 50, others pass 100 - don't wait Until the Twelfth of Never or you'll lived too long or too short without experiencing life. Go get 'em.

Blogophilia 34.16: WRITER’S CHOICE!!! Peace Baby!

Marvin Martian‘s message: Hello dear Blogophilians!! It is WRITER’S CHOICE WEEK – YOU pick the topics, YOU pick the bonus prompts, and you have the freedom to use the picture provided, or choose your own! Happy Writing!

Blogophilia group on Facebook and blog topic parameters here on WordPress

Hard Bonus: WRITER’S CHOICE Incorporate a line from the movie Purgatory

Easy Bonus: WRITER’S CHOICE Use a line from U2’s song Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Peaces of Chalk

Remember when kids used to use chalk on the sidewalks to either do hopscotch or pictures? I wasn’t allowed, but had fun at those who did. It’s too bad the short chalk pieces didn’t get used to make a peace sign… back when we were relatively worry free. It was easy to tell people Peace, Baby!

As an adult, I feel like often peace obligates protest. And it’s not just for the young people who are college aged. While teenage angst is what movies depict most, I think there’s a lot more going on when we grow up, especially if we struggle to make ends meet, and it’s greater when we have children. Even when we go ask for help, we don’t necessarily get it, because there are limited resources with growing population who need the help… So, sometimes, when we are told to go here or there & we’ve already been, I want to say, “I don’t want his help! He didn’t help Melanie and he didn’t help me. Look at me! I wanted to be a lawyer, because I believed in justice. Ha! That’s a laugh. Does this look like justice to you? Oh!” – Purgatory 1988 film

I get it that we will never agree fully with political stances… there are a wide range of beliefs. yet I feel like the right keeps moving to insane measures, and the left has been also… There seems to me no middle ground anymore where the opposite sides can agree, even if it’s limited… Though seriously, I don’t get it as to why free (healthy) lunches for students, Medicare for all, and affordable higher education are so whacky to some people… Which is why it baffles me that conservatives, who always want to be “fiscally responsible” voted for a clown… I’d like to quote U2’s Sunday, Bloody Sunday

I can’t believe the news today
Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away

And the battle’s just begun
There’s many lost, but tell me who has won?
The trenches dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

No, I will not compromise equity for people of color, LGBT, women, disabled, etc. just for saving pennies in the store and gas pumps, except that look, the grocery prices have gone up more than gas prices have come down. The clown was voted in to discriminate without helping the economy…