Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
with all the strength of a raging fire
Someone told me last week that I looked strong. It's a new girl at work who really doesn't know me very well. She meant physically strong. And I realized I'd never, ever been told that before. I get told how small I am a lot, and people seem to see me as fragile because of it. I'm not saying I'm a beast. (Well, sometimes I say that lol) But I know I'm small. I may even be fragile. But it was surprisingly refreshing to have someone see me differently. Different from how others have seen me. Different from how maybe I've seen me.
I smiled and said thank you. And I really meant it.
I smiled and said thank you. And I really meant it.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
what you really think of me
This is the first e-mail I read when I got to work this morning, which to be honest, had already started off a little rough. I did not edit the e-mail or anything. Just copied and pasted it here.
After reading the article about the mock drill at NCHS by Leigh Guidry on Tuesday, I was absolutely appalled by her lack of information. I have a very dear friend who is a Deputy Coroner. He is one of MANY Deputy Coroners in Natchitoches Parish. A woman my sister attends church with is also a DEPUTY CORONER here. Ms. Guidry's article mentioned that police, firefighters, etc. (all PLURAL) participated, along with THE DEPUTY CORONER. As I stated previously, there are MANY Deputy Coroners, and MORE THAN ONE participated in this drill, thus MORE THAN ONE deserves credit for taking time out of THEIR busy day to participate! The Coroner's Office receives very little publicity, and in turn, very little funding. The MULTIPLE Deputy Coroners work VERY hard at their jobs, and THEY also work very hard to participate in drills such as this, and deserve credit for doing so. There are THREE people who work SOLELY as DEPUTY CORONERS and conduct investigations for the office, along with MULTIPLE doctors and nurses who are ALSO DEPUTY CORONERS and participate in investigations, forensic exams, mental health exams, etc. Ms. Guidry is doing a HUGE DISSERVICE to the community by not getting her facts straight before publishing an article. By failing to retrieve proper information, she appears to be discriminating against certain hardworking officials of this parish. I urge you to set her straight immediately.
Thank you.
A FRIEND OF DEPUTY CORONERS (PLURAL)
Obviously, she caught me touting my discriminatory agenda against deputy coroners. You do know how I hate them. Glad somebody finally figured me out. It's always fun to have my entire journalistic career and integrity insulted because of my misuse of an article (the versus a), especially at 8 a.m.
Somebody obviously missed the point of my story on the mock crash, which was a story of the school telling students not to drink and drive, not an informative piece on how many deputy coroners are in the parish or a grammatical essay explaining the difference between plural and singular. She doesn't seem to realize she e-mailed that straight to me either.
In other words, good morning, folks.
After reading the article about the mock drill at NCHS by Leigh Guidry on Tuesday, I was absolutely appalled by her lack of information. I have a very dear friend who is a Deputy Coroner. He is one of MANY Deputy Coroners in Natchitoches Parish. A woman my sister attends church with is also a DEPUTY CORONER here. Ms. Guidry's article mentioned that police, firefighters, etc. (all PLURAL) participated, along with THE DEPUTY CORONER. As I stated previously, there are MANY Deputy Coroners, and MORE THAN ONE participated in this drill, thus MORE THAN ONE deserves credit for taking time out of THEIR busy day to participate! The Coroner's Office receives very little publicity, and in turn, very little funding. The MULTIPLE Deputy Coroners work VERY hard at their jobs, and THEY also work very hard to participate in drills such as this, and deserve credit for doing so. There are THREE people who work SOLELY as DEPUTY CORONERS and conduct investigations for the office, along with MULTIPLE doctors and nurses who are ALSO DEPUTY CORONERS and participate in investigations, forensic exams, mental health exams, etc. Ms. Guidry is doing a HUGE DISSERVICE to the community by not getting her facts straight before publishing an article. By failing to retrieve proper information, she appears to be discriminating against certain hardworking officials of this parish. I urge you to set her straight immediately.
Thank you.
A FRIEND OF DEPUTY CORONERS (PLURAL)
Obviously, she caught me touting my discriminatory agenda against deputy coroners. You do know how I hate them. Glad somebody finally figured me out. It's always fun to have my entire journalistic career and integrity insulted because of my misuse of an article (the versus a), especially at 8 a.m.
Somebody obviously missed the point of my story on the mock crash, which was a story of the school telling students not to drink and drive, not an informative piece on how many deputy coroners are in the parish or a grammatical essay explaining the difference between plural and singular. She doesn't seem to realize she e-mailed that straight to me either.
In other words, good morning, folks.
Monday, April 30, 2012
self discovery
I've learned a lot about myself in the last few months, and sharing that with people I love and who love me back is kinda the point of this blog. And since I'm so fond of lists, I figured I'd a few of put my realizations neatly into a list.
-Heather is my longest relationship, other than family. I didn't actually make this realization. She did after telling one of her students about me, I think. The little girl (7 or 12 years old, I think) asked how long we'd known each other, and her eyes bugged out after Heather did the math and told her. Seventeen years is hard for anyone 7 or 12 to comprehend. It's hard for us to comprehend. And when she figured it out, she said, "You're my longest relationship." Mine, too. :)
-I absolutely love the way Barbara Kingsolver writes. She's my favorite. I just finished The Bean Trees and loved it, and I'd always loved Poisonwood Bible. I plan to read more of hers and fully expect to love them, too. I can't say she's my only favorite author, but she's my favorite the way you're my favorite and how I have a gazillion favorite songs. But she ranks evenly with Jane Austen and Rudolfo Anaya, and none of them are comparable in any way. They are so different.
-It's been too long since I've been out of the country. I have left this country at least once a year since I was a junior in high school, and most often it's in the summer, sometimes for spring break, which is close to the summer. And my body or mind or soul or some combination is fighting me. It knows I don't have plans to jet set, and it knows that's wrong. I love this country, but I crave travel. It seems to be in my blood, although I have no idea who passed that blood down to me. I've left the U.S. every summer since 2006, and I currently don't have plans to do so this summer. During my last two years of high school, we went on mission trips to Mexico during spring break. Then I went to Honduras in July 2006, Costa Rica in June 2007, Honduras in July 2007 and July 2008, Jamaica in May 2009, Honduras in July 2009, Aruba in May 2010 and Honduras in July 2011. I am not going to Honduras this summer, nor is anyone whisking me to an island for a trip I didn't deserve but will always be grateful for (thanks, Rayce and Kera and the Guidrys). Eric and I had planned to go to Guatemala and then changed our minds to New York, which is where they have stayed, but we're waiting to hear that Eric has an official teaching job next year before we start buying plane tickets. I told Eric tonight that we might have to drive to Canada or Mexico this year to keep me from breaking my streak, which I'm a little proud of, and he offered to drop me in the Gulf. Off the coast is out of the country, he says. Hmm.
-I don't want anyone else's life. I'm ashamed to say I've felt otherwise, even though I know I'm not alone in that. But even if everyone feels that way it doesn't make it OK. If you've ever heard your mother ask you that jump-off-a-bridge question, then you know the answer. At points in my life - recent points, even - I've wanted someone else's life, whether it was specific (live abroad like Heather or move away like Kera or Kelli or move back to Sulphur) or vague (just be different), I've wanted it. It's called coveting, for all you Bible scholars, and it's a sin. I know that. It's one of the "thou shalt nots." But it's how I've felt. And I'm very happy and secure in saying that I love my life. It's mine and I don't want anyone else's. Sometimes I do want to live abroad, but I don't want Heather's life and I don't not want mine. One day I will live abroad and that will be my life then. But I am where (and who) I am now, and I'm happy. And it's funny, in a way, because I just realized it one day when we were routinely driving home in my car. Home from where I don't remember, but it was daylight. We were on Hwy. 119 by the beautiful almost corn fields just bursting with potential if it would ever rain. And as Eric was making the sharp turn onto the bridge I told him my realization, just said it calmly and normally as if I was saying "and we're out of milk."
There are more and, I'm sure, more to come. But that's all for now. Keep 'em coming back, as they say.
-Heather is my longest relationship, other than family. I didn't actually make this realization. She did after telling one of her students about me, I think. The little girl (7 or 12 years old, I think) asked how long we'd known each other, and her eyes bugged out after Heather did the math and told her. Seventeen years is hard for anyone 7 or 12 to comprehend. It's hard for us to comprehend. And when she figured it out, she said, "You're my longest relationship." Mine, too. :)
-I absolutely love the way Barbara Kingsolver writes. She's my favorite. I just finished The Bean Trees and loved it, and I'd always loved Poisonwood Bible. I plan to read more of hers and fully expect to love them, too. I can't say she's my only favorite author, but she's my favorite the way you're my favorite and how I have a gazillion favorite songs. But she ranks evenly with Jane Austen and Rudolfo Anaya, and none of them are comparable in any way. They are so different.
-It's been too long since I've been out of the country. I have left this country at least once a year since I was a junior in high school, and most often it's in the summer, sometimes for spring break, which is close to the summer. And my body or mind or soul or some combination is fighting me. It knows I don't have plans to jet set, and it knows that's wrong. I love this country, but I crave travel. It seems to be in my blood, although I have no idea who passed that blood down to me. I've left the U.S. every summer since 2006, and I currently don't have plans to do so this summer. During my last two years of high school, we went on mission trips to Mexico during spring break. Then I went to Honduras in July 2006, Costa Rica in June 2007, Honduras in July 2007 and July 2008, Jamaica in May 2009, Honduras in July 2009, Aruba in May 2010 and Honduras in July 2011. I am not going to Honduras this summer, nor is anyone whisking me to an island for a trip I didn't deserve but will always be grateful for (thanks, Rayce and Kera and the Guidrys). Eric and I had planned to go to Guatemala and then changed our minds to New York, which is where they have stayed, but we're waiting to hear that Eric has an official teaching job next year before we start buying plane tickets. I told Eric tonight that we might have to drive to Canada or Mexico this year to keep me from breaking my streak, which I'm a little proud of, and he offered to drop me in the Gulf. Off the coast is out of the country, he says. Hmm.
-I don't want anyone else's life. I'm ashamed to say I've felt otherwise, even though I know I'm not alone in that. But even if everyone feels that way it doesn't make it OK. If you've ever heard your mother ask you that jump-off-a-bridge question, then you know the answer. At points in my life - recent points, even - I've wanted someone else's life, whether it was specific (live abroad like Heather or move away like Kera or Kelli or move back to Sulphur) or vague (just be different), I've wanted it. It's called coveting, for all you Bible scholars, and it's a sin. I know that. It's one of the "thou shalt nots." But it's how I've felt. And I'm very happy and secure in saying that I love my life. It's mine and I don't want anyone else's. Sometimes I do want to live abroad, but I don't want Heather's life and I don't not want mine. One day I will live abroad and that will be my life then. But I am where (and who) I am now, and I'm happy. And it's funny, in a way, because I just realized it one day when we were routinely driving home in my car. Home from where I don't remember, but it was daylight. We were on Hwy. 119 by the beautiful almost corn fields just bursting with potential if it would ever rain. And as Eric was making the sharp turn onto the bridge I told him my realization, just said it calmly and normally as if I was saying "and we're out of milk."
There are more and, I'm sure, more to come. But that's all for now. Keep 'em coming back, as they say.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
i love the sound of your name
A few weeks ago my friend Alan told me about this search engine, or "computational knowledge engine" as they tout, called WolframAlpha. He told me to input my name and it would tell me all kinds of neat statistics about it. (Ok, so maybe he didn't say "neat.") So I did.
And this is what I got. Statistically, my name belongs to less than 1 in 125,000 people. A graph showed me that it peaked in popularity about 1970, which is funny because I know very few 42-year-old women named Leigh. Actually, I think I've only met a few women I share a first name with. It's a common middle name, but not so much for first names.
I didn't like my name when I was very little. I knew boys named Lee and I thought my name was too short. That's probably because I knew my brothers had their real names and then what we called them. Maybe I wanted that, too. I didn't get how Chris got to be Chris and Christopher. No fair. Maybe that's why they called me Leigh-Leigh.
But I grew to really like my name by high school. It's unique, uncommon, but not really weird. That's what I love about it. My middle name, Sarah, is much more common, according to WolframAlpha and real life. The database says that 1 in 312 people are named Sarah. And real life - even just in my family - tells me that the name belongs to my mom, her aunt, Eric's cousin and his granny as well as so many girls I've known growing up. So I'm glad Mom was too afraid I'd be bullied to name me Sarah Leigh like she considered.
And although sometimes it seems like no one can pronounce it or spell it correctly, although I get called Leah and Lay (yes, my name is sleigh without the S) and Lisa and even Lacy (yeah, I don't know on that one), I'm glad I'm stuck with Leigh. And I'm glad it's being passed down through my niece, Jenna Leigh.
Besides, Mom could have named me Raenell, which even WolframAlpha doesn't recognize.
I didn't like my name when I was very little. I knew boys named Lee and I thought my name was too short. That's probably because I knew my brothers had their real names and then what we called them. Maybe I wanted that, too. I didn't get how Chris got to be Chris and Christopher. No fair. Maybe that's why they called me Leigh-Leigh.
But I grew to really like my name by high school. It's unique, uncommon, but not really weird. That's what I love about it. My middle name, Sarah, is much more common, according to WolframAlpha and real life. The database says that 1 in 312 people are named Sarah. And real life - even just in my family - tells me that the name belongs to my mom, her aunt, Eric's cousin and his granny as well as so many girls I've known growing up. So I'm glad Mom was too afraid I'd be bullied to name me Sarah Leigh like she considered.
And although sometimes it seems like no one can pronounce it or spell it correctly, although I get called Leah and Lay (yes, my name is sleigh without the S) and Lisa and even Lacy (yeah, I don't know on that one), I'm glad I'm stuck with Leigh. And I'm glad it's being passed down through my niece, Jenna Leigh.
Besides, Mom could have named me Raenell, which even WolframAlpha doesn't recognize.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
bread crumbs
There was a fire Saturday at The Gingerbread House (a store in Natchitoches).
Someone called the paper today to ask what happened.
I think the witch in the oven caught fire, which spread to the rest of the house.
Just a theory, though. The fire department hasn't confirmed. Yet.
Someone called the paper today to ask what happened.
I think the witch in the oven caught fire, which spread to the rest of the house.
Just a theory, though. The fire department hasn't confirmed. Yet.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
never liked the rain til I walked through it with you
It rained in my coffee cup this morning. I couldn't detect the presence of the raindrops as I sipped, even though I'd witnessed them fall into my mug as I tried to get from my front door to my car. I guess rain doesn't have a taste. Or if it does, it blends well with coffee. (Who knew?) I only tasted the bitter coffee, rich milk and sweet sugar I mix together in my brown-and-orange cup every morning.
I drove to work a bit sleepily in the drizzle. I'd stayed up too late reading again. But the rain makes me sleepy, too.
What will I talk about today? The 5 inches of rain we received? The end of the drought that I reported on for so long? E-mails I'm waiting on? The hundreds of pages I'm reading that are filling my thoughts? The pages I have left to read? The variety of topics I'm writing about at work - from uneventful meetings to more exciting crimes?
No. Instead I think I'll share this little gem from the AP with you. (I bolded my favorite part.)
Lutcher man arrested in theft of crawfish
LUTCHER, La. (AP) — St. James Parish sheriff's deputies have arrested a 24-year-old Lutcher man accused of stealing 166 pounds of crawfish from a seafood store.
The Advocate reports Anthony Chauvin was booked Friday with single counts of theft of crawfish and criminal damage to property.
Deputies say the mudbugs were reported missing at 5:15 a.m. Friday from an outside walk-in cooler that had been locked at Miko's Seafood.
Maj. Sid Berthelot said Monday someone cut a padlock to the cooler, and crawfish valued at more than $500 were taken. He says no crawfish were recovered from the theft. It could not be determined if Chauvin has an attorney.
___
Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
I drove to work a bit sleepily in the drizzle. I'd stayed up too late reading again. But the rain makes me sleepy, too.
What will I talk about today? The 5 inches of rain we received? The end of the drought that I reported on for so long? E-mails I'm waiting on? The hundreds of pages I'm reading that are filling my thoughts? The pages I have left to read? The variety of topics I'm writing about at work - from uneventful meetings to more exciting crimes?
No. Instead I think I'll share this little gem from the AP with you. (I bolded my favorite part.)
Lutcher man arrested in theft of crawfish
LUTCHER, La. (AP) — St. James Parish sheriff's deputies have arrested a 24-year-old Lutcher man accused of stealing 166 pounds of crawfish from a seafood store.
The Advocate reports Anthony Chauvin was booked Friday with single counts of theft of crawfish and criminal damage to property.
Deputies say the mudbugs were reported missing at 5:15 a.m. Friday from an outside walk-in cooler that had been locked at Miko's Seafood.
Maj. Sid Berthelot said Monday someone cut a padlock to the cooler, and crawfish valued at more than $500 were taken. He says no crawfish were recovered from the theft. It could not be determined if Chauvin has an attorney.
___
Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)