Ok introductions, so what qualifies me to be Mrs. Long Island?
Well, over the years I have probably answered as many, if not more questions than Mr. Long Island. I don't wish to steal his spotlight so, the truth is I still send the tough ones to him.
I have lived on Long Island, New York all my life. I am a crazed mom with 2.5 kids including my cat. I sacrificed the SUV for the minivan. I swear I did it for the kids, but the DVD player keeps them from screaming. "Finding Nemo" has the most awesome dialogue, especially after you've heard it 368 times. My husband and I go back and forth reciting the good parts on long drives.
Big Daddy Dave, a co-worker that my husband blessed with that nickname, described me as a little rough around the edges. I agree, not completely polished but throw a business suit on me and I look like I know what I am doing. I tend to be a bit too brutally honest (Oops, did I say that out loud?) and I am still debating as to whether I am a pessimist or an optimist.
Probably a realist, I look at the glass and say, "Someone is going to have to wash that glass sooner or later." That is when I realize that someone is me and put it on the 'to do' list.
My mother-in-law, God bless her soul, should be nominated for sainthood. Every once in a great while she will ask for a favor from me. I owe her quite a few, so I happily oblige with, "Of course". And she humbly replies, "Oh, thank you so much. I know you are busy, but if you need something done ask a busy person they always seem to find the time to do it." She is absolutely right, trust me...I have tested the theory on a few unsuspecting couch potatoes in my day.
I like adages, expressions and sayings. I learned a long time ago that everyone has something they can teach you, especially the ones that are older than you. Here and there I picked up subtle expressions that I thought were useful and stored them in the memory banks. Every so often one pops out and has a personal meaning to me, but not necessarily to you. Hence my slightly distorted sense of humor.
When I faced the crossroads to college choices I was thinking lawyer or artist? Hmmm, let's do the road less traveled -- Frost thing. At the time, I wasn't such a busy person. The idea of facing several years of study, carrying around heavy books, late night cram sessions, etc. did not excite me. Jumping on the LIRR with a sketch pad and a pencil, now that was the road nicely traveled.
Art school wasn't a easy as I thought. To add to my dismay, soon after enrolling they lined us up and told us to pick our major ( i.e. fine arts, fashion design, architecture, etc). I had no clue! I walked around to each line and found out the approximate starting salaries of each occupation. I jumped on the Graphics Arts line as did most of my collegues. Geez, if you think New York has too many lawyers you had to see the size of that line. Long story short, I landed in the advertising business.
I put on my suit, started designing ads and writing ad copy. The space between then and now might be found in my memoirs if I ever get around to writing that. It is not a high priority "to-do" list item.
As you get older does the inner voice, become louder? Do you talk to yourself more often? If so, it keeps waking me up at 3 am telling me to write it down. So, I am taking advice from my inner voice and writing it down. If you come across spelling mistakes and/or grammatical incorrectness bear in mind that I opted for art school.
BTW, my daughter has memorized Laurie Berkner's song, "We're Not Perfect." We love to sing it together so much so, that I have offically adopted it as my theme song. My inner voice is singing the chorus right now, "We do our very best, we do our very best each day..."
Thank you for reading my rantings.