Why I Haven’t Made an Offer

I mentioned in the last post that I may have found my new place. Here’s the rest of the story. It’s complicated. First, I need to sell my house before I can buy a new one. The idea is to use the proceeds from my house to pay cash for the new one. My plan is to pare down my expenses so, if I need to retire (not a part of my plan, but it could happen), I’ll be able to live comfortably with much reduced means. You never know.

So, okay, I need to sell my house, and before I do that, I need to do some serious decluttering. I’m working on that and shooting for the end of the month to put it on the market. Meanwhile, I’m taking a load of excess stuff to charity about once a week, giving the shredder a workout, and recycling stacks of paperwork.

To further complicate matters, when I told my neighbors I planned to move, they were interested in buying my house. They would use it as a rental until Scott’s mom retires here from West Virginia. Also, they’d like to add office and studio space for themselves above the garage.

We talked at length one afternoon, and my brother explained my house’s structural problems, which didn’t seem to phase them. Anyway, it would be great if this all works out, but there is one teeny, tiny problem. Before they could buy my house, they would have to sell their current rental. Luckily, both their rental and my house are in one of the most popular neighborhoods in Denver. In fact, I’ve already heard from four potential buyers for my house and, as I mentioned, it’s not on the market yet. It’s shaping up to be an interesting summer.

March Madness Sadness Gladness

March is a confusing month for me.

Although March is historically our snowiest month in Denver, it is also the month when spring begins and flowers start to bloom, even in the snow. Actually, that’s a pretty good metaphor for the month.

My beautiful nieces were both born in March, and they have been bringing light into my life for more than 40 years. That’s the gladness. They live in Phoenix, so I don’t get to see them as often as I would like.

Sadness comes because both my mother and father died in March. My mother passed away on March 18, twenty-one years ago at the age of 67. My dad lived until age 90 and breathed his last breath on March 25 three years ago.

Maybe that’s why March Madness irritates me so much. First, CBS pre-empts The Young and the Restless for FOUR days to show some idiot basketball games. I don’t even like Y&R much anymore, but it’s what I use as background noise when I eat lunch and read.

In the middle of the basketball frenzy comes St. Patrick’s Day. How can the Irish be proud of a pseudo-holiday that’s celebrated in America by people drinking themselves stupid?

And speaking of people drinking themselves stupid, what can I say about spring break. When did it become a requirement for college (and now even high school) students to debark to Mexico to raise hell and party themselves into oblivion? Don’t get me started.

Let’s just say I’m happy April is just a few days away.

March Madness Sadness Gladness

March is a confusing month for me.

Although March is historically our snowiest month in Denver, it is also the month when spring begins and flowers start to bloom, even in the snow. Actually, that’s a pretty good metaphor for the month.

My beautiful nieces were both born in March, and they have been bringing light into my life for more than 40 years. That’s the gladness. They live in Phoenix, so I don’t get to see them as often as I would like.

Sadness comes because both my mother and father died in March. My mother passed away on March 18, twenty-one years ago at the age of 67. My dad lived until age 90 and breathed his last breath on March 25 three years ago.

Maybe that’s why March Madness irritates me so much. First, CBS pre-empts The Young and the Restless for FOUR days to show some idiot basketball games. I don’t even like Y&R much anymore, but it’s what I use as background noise when I eat lunch and read.

In the middle of the basketball frenzy comes St. Patrick’s Day. How can the Irish be proud of a pseudo-holiday that’s celebrated in America by people drinking themselves stupid?

And speaking of people drinking themselves stupid, what can I say about spring break. When did it become a requirement for college (and now even high school) students to debark to Mexico to raise hell and party themselves into oblivion? According to Time magazine, the debauchery started with the ancient Greeks and Romans  celebrating the vernal equinox. But American students have put their own special stamp on it, egged on by liquor companies, MTV and Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild notoriety.

These things make me happy that I’m not a teenager anymore. Maybe I should celebrate that this month, but mostly I’m looking forward to April.

Pride and Prejudice

It was the Academy Awards that got me started thinking about Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Colin Firth won (as expected) for best actor in The King’s Speech, but I kept thinking about him as the definitive Mr. Darcy in the 5-hour BBC television mini-series of the book.

The newer, shorter Keira Knightley version is frequently on television, and I’ve seen it several times. I think Keira Knightley made a sparkling Elizabeth and I loved Donald Sutherland as her father and Dame Judi Desch as the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourg. But Matthew Macfadyen just didn’t cut it as Darcy. No smolder, no inner turmoil. And the movie moved too fast. The viewer doesn’t get the same feeling of suppressed desire and frustration, wondering when Lizzie and Darcy will finally get together.

In short, it doesn’t have Colin Firth.

I ordered the BBC series from the library and spent most of Saturday watching it. It didn’t disappoint. I fell in love with CF all over again. When the series was over, I wanted to watch it again. Instead, on Sunday, I watched Becoming Jane starring Anne Hathaway as the wildly popular author.

Soon, I will want to reread the original book, but until then, I’m filling in with Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, an audio download from my library. This “sequel” to P&P tells of life at Pemberly after the wedding.

Next, I’m planning to dive into one of the Austen biographies. Obsessed? Not me. I could probably spend the rest of my life studying Austen, but there are too many other books I want to read, too. So many books, so little time.

Go With the Simple Solution

The lamp on my desk wouldn’t come on when I turned the switch. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem. I’d just change the light bulb and move on. This, however, was one of those energy-saving curlicue bulbs which are supposed to last five years, so that couldn’t be the problem.

I checked to make sure it was plugged in. Because I live in an ancient house with too few outlets, the lamp plug was piggybacked on the plug for my digital phone modem. (I swear I’m getting rid of the damn land line and going cellular. I might as well get some use out of the cell phone that I pay for and never use. But I digress.) The phone was working, and I deduced that the outlet wasn’t the problem.

Hmmm. Could be the switch. I bought the lamp at Target less than a year ago. Maybe I could exchange it for a new one.

After getting by for two days with just the overhead lamp, which threw my shadow onto anything I tried to read at my desk, I decided I had to quit overthinking this and do something. I replaced the light bulb with a new curlicue and it lit right up.

Maybe the fact that my desk lamp is on roughly 12 hours a day used up it’s life in less that the promised five years. Whatever. This was a reminder of Occam’s Razor: the simplest solution is usually the best. At least it’s the best place to start.

So, the next time you find yourself overcomplicating things, remember Occam’s Razor and try the simplest solution first.

Summer Camp for Build-it-Yourselfers

I’ve had a fantasy all my life of building my own house. Over the years, I’ve read several books written by people who have actually done that. To make that fantasy come true, these people/organizations offer design/build workshops, which would be an excellent way to spend a summer vacation:

Those who want to seriously downsize can learn to build a tiny house at one of the workshops offered around the country by Tumbleweed Tiny Houses. Check out the schedule here.

Learn to build a yurt at a Vermont workshop.

If your taste runs to alternative building materials, you can learn about building an earthbag, cob, or straw bale house here.

Finally, one of the original design/build schools is Yestermorrow in Warren, Vermont, which offers over 150 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft including a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design and green building. Yestermorrow teaches both design and construction skills in 1-day to 3-week hands-on courses are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country.

Happy building.

Top Five Reasons You Don’t Need a Degree to Start a Business

1. Bill Gates

Although no longer the world’s richest man, Gates is still among the list of the world’s wealthiest people. He entered Harvard in 1973 and dropped out two years later to found Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, and at commencement, Gates said, “I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.”

2.  Steve Jobs

The founder of Apple and Pixar had to drop out of Reed College after just six months. In a 2005 commencement speech he gave at Stanford University, Jobs credited a calligraphy class he took at Reed College with forming the basis for the typography used in the first Macintosh computer.

3.   Sir Richard Branson

Branson’s first successful business was publishing a magazine called Student, which is ironic since he left school when he was only 16. Today, Branson’s brand Virgin includes Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and more than 300 other companies. When he was just 24, Sir Branson bought his own 79-acre Caribbean island. He was knighted in 1999.

4.   Mark Zuckerberg

Another famous Harvard dropout, Mark Zuckerberg developed Facebook in his school dorm. As Facebook’s became one of the world’s most popular social networking sites, Zuckerberg chose to leave school and relocate his company to California. Forbes named Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire in the world, with a 2010 net worth of 4 billion U.S. dollars. He recently donated $100 million to the Newark, NJ public schools.

5. Michael Dell

Dell Computers is another company founded in a college dorm room. Among top ten wealthiest Americans, Dell dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin to run the company. In 2006, Dell and his wife gave a $50 million grant to the University which he attended but never graduated from.

Find more famous college dropouts at the College Dropouts Hall of Fame.

Can You Say Thank You?

The assignment for my business communications students was to write a thank you note. One man turned in a standard rejection letter sent by his Human Resources department to unsuccessful job applicants. I gave it back to him with the explanation that it wasn’t a thank you note. He looked at me as if I were incredibly stupid and smugly pointed to the first line: “Thank you for applying . . . “

Lesson number one. Using the words, thank you, doesn’t make it a thank you note. The purpose of a thank you note is to show gratitude. The purpose of his letter was to tell people they didn’t get a job. See the difference?

Penmanship is no longer taught in school and according to a CBS Sunday Morning story, some people think schools should stop teaching students how to write by hand at all because the prevalence and ease of using keyboards render handwriting unnecessary. I hope they’re wrong. Even as I struggle sometimes to decipher the gorgeous but sometimes illegible writing of my one friend who still prefers letters to email, it means something that she made the effort to handwrite a letter. Finding one of her missives in my mailbox makes my day.

Make somebody else’s day today. Write a thank you note and add some positive energy in the universe. Whom would you like to thank? It could be:

Authors of books you enjoyed

Doctors or other medical personnel who treat you like a human being

Anyone who makes your day more pleasant

Gardener whose yard pleases you on your daily walk

Call center technician who actually helped you.

Anyone who gives you a gift

Write it by hand on a pretty card, handmade paper, or a picture postcard (remember those?) and send it through the mail! A thank you by email is better than no thank you at all, but part of the fun is imagining the nice surprise when your benefactor finds your note among the usual bills, catalogs, and credit card solicitations in the mail.

What I Did on My Day Off*

First thing this morning, I made my weekly trip to the Tattered Cover bookstore. I love stores that open early in the morning (M-F 6:30 a.m.). While there I sampled three books:

Where Women Create, a quarterly Stampington publication

I love looking at creative people’s homes. This one featured Mary Emmerling whom I have been following for 20+ years.

Art Journaling, a semiannual Stampington publication

Great ideas for art journal techniques from a variety of artists.

59 Seconds : Change your Life in Under a Minute by Richard Wiseman

I especially liked his formula for a perfect diary, focusing on gratitude and the positive things in your life. I’ll be trying some of these techniques in my journal. Friday’s assignment is to review positive events in your life.

Back home, I listened to the audio version of Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson (also available in hard cover, CD and Kindle). I’m just getting started on this one. So far he’s talking about complexity of things such as large cities and the Internet which exponentially increase the occurrence of creative ideas.

In the car, I listened to the CD book People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman. It’s been 25 years since I first read it and am enjoying my second trip through Navajo country.

Lunch at Chick-fil-A with a booth of screaming kids behind me. I read the ebook, Freedom, Money, Time and the Key to Creative Success by Mark McGuiness at Lateral Action. It’s basically a 34-page ad for his upcoming course in creative entrepreneurship that makes the point that artists and creatives have an unfair advantage at Internet marketing because they create original content. Good information. I was très relieved when the little brats behind me finally finished their chicken nuggets and moved on to the play area. I need to find a new place to have lunch.

I downloaded three podcast interviews and an ebook from Lateral Action’s ecourse in creative entrepreneurship.

Watched a short video of the living kitchen (tweeted by Leo at ZenHabits).

Reviewed four papers for the university writing center (my day job) and grew frustrated by the constant overuse and misuse of semicolons. There are only two legitimate uses for semicolons, people. If you don’t know what those are, just don’t use them at all, okay?

At 3 p.m. I joined an online master class on blogging with Leo Babauta of A-List Blogging. I appreciated the brief reviews of four websites, but found the “chat” annoying.

That’s it. *Surprise! My day off was remarkably similar to every other day.

Five Reasons to Return to College

Too often, the decision to go back to school is a knee-jerk reaction to change. Schools know that their enrollment rises when the economy tanks. Can’t find a job? Return to school. It gives you an acceptable answer to the question, “what do you do?” Saying, “I’m a student” is so much easier to say than I’m unemployed, even if you’re 40. Going to school makes you seem like someone with direction and purpose. A man with a plan. A woman on the rise.

A classroom may not be the best place for learning. Albert Einstein famously said, “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”  Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk or Brain Rules by John Medina illustrate this idea. Common sense indicates that colleges are increasingly expensive and decreasingly relevant. For more info, see Anya Kamanetz’ TEDxAtlanta talk or read her book, DIY U.

Make sure to check for degree requirements and don’t just assume you know what’s needed. For example, starting your own business does not require any degree at all—and for the record, most degrees in business administration emphasize skills needed to work in corporations, not skills for entrepreneurs.

1. You need certification for your field – If you want to work in corporate America or government and advance to the management level, you probably need a degree. Depending on the position, you may need a specific degree, but maybe not. Degree requirements are typically written into the job description, and you won’t even be considered without the degree.
2. You want to change fields – The loss of jobs in the auto and other industries cost Michigan 335,000 jobs. The state launched the No Worker Left Behind program in 2007 and has retrained 80,000 workers. The largest group trained for jobs in health care. When my friend Sheila decided in her early 50s to enter the ministry, she needed to go to seminary for a master’s of divinity degree to meet her church’s requirement. Before you sign up for college classes, however, make sure you really need additional education. You may be able to adapt your current skills to the new field.
3. Fulfill a personal goal—My friend Pat had no burning desire to finish her degree, and as a small business owner, no need to do so. However, she learned that her father’s dream was for her to finish college, so she did. Sandy is going back to college because “I just love to learn. The exchange of ideas between the teacher and the students pushes me understand and consider the material in new ways.”
4. Be a role model for your kids—“How can I expect my kids to go to college if I don’t?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this from my adult students. Earning a degree will make your kids proud of your accomplishments and will show them that education is important throughout your life.
5. Improve self confidence—I remember in my mid 20s going to parties where people would ask me where I went to school. Because I was smart, they were very surprised to learn that I hadn’t finished college. When I finally finished my degree at age 30, I breathed a sigh of relief that I could finally answer that question without cringing and I could stop the careful wording on my resume that, without lying, implied that I had a degree.

If you decide that college is right for you, go for it and good luck.