Happy Holloween... Marilyn

We had meetings starting at noon.  We spent most of the afternoon going over what each faculty person taught in Studio I, II, III, IV, and V.  It was nice to see what everyone was doing so that you could relate that to the students.  You did bubbles and block diagrams in studion I and II, we are going to do it again in Studio III.   In addition, it was good to spend some time with people visiting.  I got to know Koh and Jain much better, yesterday.  It was nice to talk to the people from our Atlanta program.  We have an amazing number of faculty on staff.  I think thier were over 20 of us. 

Hope your day is grand... Happy Holloween.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

On at lunch and one before dinner... this is the meeting week.  Today we have a mandatory faculty meeting go from 12 noon through dinner and again tomorrow breakfast through late afternoon.  I don't normally have so many meetings in one week.  Hmmmm 

Swam well yesterday, felt strong in the water.  I am going to try to swim tomorrow after our faculty meeting. 

Moon was gorgeous last night. It shown in on my bed too... Hope your day is grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Monday I had a speaker that I went to see after school.  Then yesterday, I had two graduate student reviews.  Today and tomorrow I have meetings scheduled for lunch and Friday and Saturday are faculty meetings.  hmmmm  I don't usually have two meetings a week... so this is kind of crazy. 

It is cloudy here today for the third day in a row.  Sometimes I wonder why I miss Michigan with so many cloudy days... I know I miss my friends. 

Hope your day is wonderful.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Off to school... Last night I went to a meeting at 5:00 with ASID for students.  Met an ASID person from Jacksonville and a former ASID National president from Atlanta.  Then I went swimming and since it was so late, went to Matt's for dinner.  He cooked pasta and when we had finished it as only 1/2 and hour before I had to go to bed.  So I trundeled off home.. to sit in my massage chair Mr. Fred... and head to bed. 

Hope your day is grand. Love and kisses, Marilyn

I paid bills this morning... and am trying to send my new rendering of the area rug to the factory to finalized the colors.  They will make us a new sample. 

Over the weekend I received six dunning calls from one of my credit cards... I paid it last night by phone by a computerized voice... but when I got into bed I was worried it was a scam because I checked my check book and I had paid that bill.  I called this morning and I had written $200.00 on my check but I hand wrote twenty dollars... hmmm so my account was in arrears and the calls were not a scam.  The bill is now paid and they know it was an accident that I wrote twenty... so all is well.  Luckily I did not lose a whole lot of sleep over this.  I think I need to pay more attention to my bills... not just making them, but paying them.  But then again... I do it twice a month.  Again that judgmental mind coming out when I make a mistake... hmmmmm

Hope your day is grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Home again... Had a great time, seemed like a mini vacation... Love and kisses, Marilyn

It has been another great visit with my client.  We have been finalizing the colors for the area rugs, but we could not get the light blue to work.  My client has low E (low energy) windows on her house and it changes colors drastically.  The last two weeks she was in Michigan so she went to the factory to look at how her rugs will be made and select a new blue.  She ended up selecting a different deep blue and changing the light blue to peach... and she brought two colors of peach to try.  So I came down here for the weekend to help finalize the color selections.  We selected the colors for the area rugs both at night and during the day in the special light the windows create.  So yesterday morning I drew the rug patterns and took Cindy's box of crayons and colored... I colored the rugs about six different ways to see which one we liked the best with the new colors.  I was surprised with 64 Crayola box I was able to find light peach, medium dark blue and beige.  So we finalized the pattern and colors before lunch.

Then I went for a swim... once I was dressed, we were headed to our favorite Mexican restaurant for a late lunch and someone pulled up to the curb.  It was Danny's father (Danny was the foreman of the building team and his detailed stewardship was one of the reasons this project is so amazing).  Danny's father wanted to show the home to someone from the French Embassy in Washington DC.   They were down here to look at and hopefully buy Danny's fathers wooden boat. 

So while they were getting out of the car and removing their shoes I ran around upstairs straightening up.  They were very gracious and impressed with the home.  The husband said that this was the future of home design.  The woman said your home is very lean... meaning uncluttered.  Right before they left, we exchanged business cards... and hers said she was the French Ambassador to the United States.

 So we piled into the car and went to the restaurant.  The food was great as usual.  We got invited by three not too sober women to sing karaoke... we humbly declined.  

Once we got back to the house, we went for a shelling trip to the beach.  We walked about four miles.  It was a perfect day, a little overcast and waves breaking on the shore.  All in all it was a relaxing fantastic day... Hope yours was grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Since I was in my mid thirties I worked hard to STOP trying to be perfect and work on striving for excellence.  Striving for excellence there is continual room for improvement, but when you strive for perfection and some small thing goes wrong... the whole thing is ruined.  I struggle with this a lot and with toning down my competitive streak... which now I think about it goes hand in hand with the perfection thingie...

For those of you who don't know... I am an Olym*pic medalist from the 1968 Olym*pics... so there is a lot of competitiveness locked in me.  But I do not like the kill em type of competitiveness... as a matter of fact when I was 17 I helped psych up one of my cohorts who beat me into the finals of the US nationals.  I had little problem with that and was proud of her success.  So I have problems understanding my competitiveness. 

Last weekend in the hotel Helena said that I don't need to be competitive.  I should just do my own thing and don't care about competition.  I said well I don't really want to compete with others and don't really feel that I am.  (but in the last few months Matt and Connie have both said I am competitive).  Helena (oh wise one) said I am not competitive in the classic go out and kill the other team, but I am comparing myself to others.  She said when I was in the pool if I didn't know who someone was and I just swam my own race... (how could she know that I purposefully did not read the information on my competition... to not be psyched out), but now I am aware of the other excellent people around me and (I think trying to keep up) she thinks competing with them.  She as such a good way to putting things so that students, including me, can understand the difference.   This is all a new way to think about competition.

When I talked to Connie about this later in the weekend she said in Buddhism there is the comparing mind and the judging mind.  I now know I do both.  When I was in grad school I worked so hard to keep up with the thirty year olds.  I did not think I could surpass them, but wanted to keep up.  And Elizabeth said I was competitive... and I couldn't understand it.  Now maybe I do.  In addition when I do something wrong... something small like forgetting something I get mad at myself...

When I was preparing my presentation I wanted it to be as good as my friend and former colleague Brad... I modeled my presentation on his because it was so terrific.  When I found my creative voice I was more excited because it was closer to what he did... well when I think about it in this new light... Brad won the outstanding Creative Scholarship Award at ID*EC International Conference with the presentation I modeled mine after.  I felt it wasn't me competing with him, but using his presentation for inspiration.  Hmmmm  Definitely the comparing mind and maybe the judging mind too... I like using these terms because I have a aversion to the competitive word.  

Okay so all of this enlightenment is being reinforced by my new security system.  I am so concerned about not setting it off... I think this is a new or old aspect of this competitive streak.  I am only competing with myself, hmmmm that judging mind again... but I find myself hyper in my concern as I go to bed or might leave the house like I did Sunday to talk to my neighbor and set the darn thing off... (I was talking on the phone and completely miss the post it note on the door reminding me to turn off the alarm... but luckily it wasn't attached to the phone yet).   Since then, I have a broom in front of the front door and a mop at the back... This demonstrates to me in a tangible way, how judgmental I am about myself and not being that "stupid" perfect person... greeeehhhh 

Life is a process and we all do the best we can.  Hope your day is grand.  Off to Florida later this afternoon.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

I promised to write more than just...  working.... do that in the metallic voice of the Dalic from Dr. Who....

This week has been crazy.  My lack of sleep over the three days of a conference... and grading all Sunday... then having problems getting to sleep Monday night... made Tuesday really hard.  I worked with my students on their schematic plans... and when I went to lunch, I was almost too tired to order.  Hmmmm crazy.  I slept well last night so am feeling better today.  I don't think it helped that I had a lot of carbs at the conference and not much protein.  Once I ate some protein for each meal... I am feeling much better. 

Hmmmm  Well my security system is working now.  The repair man was here Monday and this morning.  Now the phone is connected to the security system.  I have been using my massage chair Mr. Fred daily, so that is a good thing. 

I am I hope that you have a terrific day tomorrow.  Friday I am heading to my client's in Florida.

Love and kisses, Marilyn

I will get a chance to write soon... Love and kisses, Marilyn

No time to write... Love and kisses, Marilyn

Just finished and inputed my midterm grades.  I still have another project to grade, but I told my students I could not get it done for midterms.  So it is back to school tomorrow. 

I had lunch with my sister and she and I talked yesterday about how our past is reverberating in our current relationship.  It was good to understand that the over competitive nature of our family still affects us so many years later.  When I was 11 and she was 13, we both started swimming butterfly and I beat and she always thought that what ever she chose to swim, I would to it, and beat her.   I always felt badly that she quit swimming (and I knew I was part of the reason... and later I resisted becoming a kayaker because it was her sport and "if I couldn't make the Olym*pics in swimming I didn't care if I made it")... I have known this has been a big issue in the past... Although Connie is unbelievably accomplished herself... I fear with my new accomplishments are affecting her... anyway she said that that old jealousy was raising its head.... We were able to discuss it and I think it has receded again.  I know it will always be with us, but I pray that we can lessen the cost of it to our love and developing friendship.   hmmmmm

Hope your day was good.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Well I am back from the conference and it was a really good meeting.  I had prepared my presentation for 15 minutes.  When they started our presentations we had 12 minutes.  Greeehhh so I was nervous to cut out so much.  I guess I did okay because they awarded my talk the outstanding Creative Scholarship interior design project.  Hmmmm I guess all the worry and frustration about preparing the talk last July and again in August and refining ove the last few weeks paid off... I guess is has been an amazing week all in all.  Off to grade all day.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

And you are the first to know... VDM  is going to publish my dissertation.  I am so happy.  I sent it to them twice this summer and fall and did not hear back.  Yesterday I emailed them and the person I sent the book to had left the firm.  I sent it out last night and got the answer this morning.  Who would have thought all those years ago that I would become a published author???  It has stuff I have to do in the next two weeks to get this done.  So I go from one small project to the next.

I am going to Raliegh to present my presentation on the sustainable home in Florida.  I think it will be fun.  I will get to see many old friends.  Helena and I are staying together.  Hope your day is wonderful.  Mine sure started out great!  Love and kisses, Marilyn

So I may or may not write.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

I have been writing and combining this proposal in most of my spare time for the last three weeks...  refined and tweaked endlessly.

This morning I was ready to submit my proposal and I re-read the rules before sending it in... opps I had 22 images in ten power point slides.  The rules said 2 to 10 images.  You can put one image on a page or multiple images on a slide....  but 10 images tops.  hmmmm 22 images.... So I started slashing what I had spent the last week refining and tweaking...  greeeahhhh...  I got it down to 11 images and reworked the verbiage to work with the new page layouts... Then had to go to school to teach... 

When I got home from swimming, I took out the eleventh image... revised the words a little more and put it into PDF (for the 3rd time twice in the morning before I read the instructions) and sent it off... Whew!  4 hours early of the deadline...

Hope your day was good.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Have a great day... Love and kisses, Marilyn

So I am working today.... This week I had a security system installed in my house, and now have post it notes on every door... reminding me that I have to turn off the alarm before opening the door.  I haven't rung the alarm, yet... but it really makes me nervous.  Currently, my phone connection doesn't work... and they will come to fix it next Wednesday... hmmmm

In addition, last week I bought a massage chair and it was delivered this week.  It felt really weird because I have never spent so much money on something not necessary to my life... It was the same price as the first new car I bought in 1976... but I have had it three days now and have already used it once or twice a day each day... so if that keeps up, I will not feel it is a waste of money.  It really helped the pain in my feet and calves from walking on the beach last week.  hmmmm  The problem is... if I use it each day and it helps relieve my body pain how will I know it????  Because the pain is less... I may feel I don't need the chair as much...  Hmmm I guess I will find a difference in the number of chiropractor visits and massage... with less pain... that is what I was hoping when I bough the chair...

Today, I am working on updating my portfolio with work from my school... and pulling older work from my old computer... it is hard to keep my teaching/student work up to date... hmmm I even discovered I have not kept my clients up to date since I went to school in 2003.  I need to get this done before my old computer dies with all my photos on it.  I have backed them up, but sorting through ten to twenty CD disks... much harder to search through.   So if I can get it done now... while it is relativly easy... hmmmm

Hope your day is grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Working.... Love and kisses, Marilyn