Other Duties As Assigned

If I sneeze one more time, the brain cells left will not help me tackle my to-do list.

My blog break turned into a week and a few days. The trees budded and I keep forgetting every spring, my nose stuffs up, and my sneezes echo through the now-empty library at work. Add watery eyes and people wonder is she ok? I feel fine in the truest sense of the word rather than, you know, using it as cover. My mom has surgery next week cumulating months of appointments making me glad family related leave (FRL) are a part of our collective bargaining agreement. (I get five and spread them out for each appointment.) I use my vacation to mind my dad, and take my mom home from the hospital. It’s a bit of my time while I saved the rest for July, more of a staycation than anything else.

However, I almost ground my teeth to the roots seeing a ‘just kidding’ post from a friend of the friend of Facebook:

Luckily, the women with children I know through Facebook, among many others, will take one look and roll their eyes. As for the person posting it, I know her from a long time ago, I still remember her unhappy face after our last chat. Either she’s unhappy with her life or unhappy I chugged along just fine with mine and did not envy her completed checklist called her life. Newsflash: Life’s too short to keep chasing after the man-and-kids-dream, so I will stand still and learn to pursue new dreams.

Like Open Mic Comedy take two.

The first decent day of the year saw me out on my balcony, nicknamed Cafe Fatima, pulling together my separate notes to resemble a new set:

I have no doubt it’s four minutes again or maybe three, and I don’t mind that at all. How many laughs can I get? What will I laugh at tomorrow night? For now, none of those questions get answered, and there’s no set without fresh material. A friend once texted me, congratulating me on my getting up on stage during the cabaret. I replied back something that surprised me. Getting up on stage to do stand-up proved to relieve stress. When I went on stage at Wee Johnny’s, the same thing happened. So, no HBO or Netflix special for me thanks. The other half of the fun comes from watching some funny people try out new stuff or say the same set to a whole new reaction. One other ironic moment in all this-Winnipeg, for all its stagnant, complaining ways, has a pretty kick-ass creative core. We just roll up our sleeves and just do it.

The other duties part comes from a fun part of my job. People at the library take turns supplying a link to an article of interest for our ‘Link Of The Day’ or a word for ‘Word of the Day’ on our library website. It’s my turn for word of the day until September, even before inputting my first word, I brainstormed words off the top of my head, then headed to the nearest thesaurus to find new words for some overused ones. It’s mostly cut and paste, plus links to either Oxford or Merriam-Webster online but the fun comes in writing the sentences for examples. Last time, a week’s worth of words had examples when combined, can look like a little scene in a story. Other times, my pop-culture sensibilities come into play:

Yes, life is not always fun, and hard work has to happen. Other times, I remind myself this present moment feels pretty good, 46 is the right age for, and living is not not an assigned duty.