Chaos Everywhere

I watched the Occupy Portland situation yesterday until I couldn't stand to listen to the media anymore.  I find most of this stuff just makes me crazy - I want to know what's going on, but I don't want to have to listen to the people who are telling the story.

I keep telling people that my feet are fossilizing as the smart phone/tablet/4G/App world continues its march across our lives and our souls. I'm not opposed to technology, but I know it has limitations.  Once the shine is off the new toys, people will start to come back to what is real and lasting - human connections.

I never would have expected to see the world in such a crazy state of chaos. I guess it is cyclical and this is our time to see things through to the next world.  Hopefully, we have all learned a lot about where we don't want to go and maybe we can make some good things happen.  I certainly hope so.

**Sorry for the vagueness of this post - my brain didn't really land on anything specific today, so you just get to see my brain right before it is time to go to bed. :)

Jean Meet Wall

I hit the overwhelmed wall again today. I feel the weight of my responsibilites and commitments as heavily as can be. Some days, I just feel like I'm hanging on to everything by my toenails. The feeling will pass, but it is just getting through the days before it does...

I remembered fondly the days when I was a barista and how much I enjoyed that - looking into a mirror and chatting with the customers as I made their cappuccino with whole milk (this was in the old days - pre-Starbucks, pre-half-caf, non-fat soy latte with 3 shots of chocolate pudding and a shot of tequila...Simpler coffee times. :)

Anyway, I had a little cry-fest at my desk and that was cathartic enough to get through the rest of the day. The chaos in the industry is getting to me a little - just all the noise and conversation about all the crazy stuff. Even if you don't take any of it too seriously, it still adds up to a cacophony and that can give you a headache sometimes.

Good news: tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!

A Tempest

The world feels a little like a tempest right now...I have this mental image of everything swirling and careening around me, furniture lifting off the floor, water flowing up and down, tornados swirling, volcanos spewing, thick gooey oil pouring out of a hole in the ocean. The more the spewing and swirling, the more I still I am tempted to become. Breathing in and out.

The unrest in my professional world is a strong, black cloud. It makes me miss the "good old days" when I was "just" an interpreter. The political unrest and all the ecological problems and ideological disagreements make it hard to just BE.

Nothing happened in particular today - the air is heavy with anticipation and speculation. It is like walking a mine field. Step carefully, answer carefully, if you put your foot down too hard or in the wrong place, stand there - very still - until you can figure out how to ease away and hope you don't set off some inadvertant explosion while you are trying to get away.

And I have jury duty tomorrow.