Yep, that’s me–all wrinkled up like a Shar-pei. Ah, to have the life of a dog, a flappy-skinned little Shar-pei. But when you’re a wrinkled old biddy like me, people don’t run up to you, scratch behind your ears, and exclaim, "Aren’t you just the cutest thing!"
All those wrinkles are no doubt increased because you just can’t sleep as much as you used to when you get older. So much less beauty sleep is bound to have an effect, right?
I’m currently working on a project with some folks two time zones to the West of me. Today I got up at 4 a.m. and sat down at the computer to work. By 8 a.m. I had half a day’s work done, and my co-workers weren’t even out of bed yet. I thought that opening your eyes, wide awake and ready to rock, at 4 a.m. was a drawback, a handicap.
Yesterday, however, I heard a story about a woman who turned the peculiar sleep needs of the aging into a boon. She gets along fine on a couple of hours sleep now and then, so she hires herself out to sleep with newborns. She spends the night in the baby’s room and crawls out of bed to feed and change the little darling as needed. Mom and dad wake refreshed in the morning to take over. During the day she is busy living her normal life. She sleeps with the baby until it is sleeping through the night, then moves on to a different newborn.
From the perspective of a teacher, I’ve seen some interesting people in my classroom. Some of them are pliable and do things exactly the way you instruct. Some of them maintain their own peculiarities in spite of everything that happens around them. They have their own ideas about what makes sense as web navigation, what looks good on a web page, what uses the web can be put to. It doesn’t hurt teachers to get the occasional reminder that what seems to be a handicap or a problem can often turn into a good thing. Success comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s good to trust that even the average student may find a way to make life sing using the skills learned in your classroom; unless, of course, they’re sleeping in class.
Virginia, you may be getting wrinkles but you are still looking good. I think we’re pretty much the same age and i’m here to testify that you look better than me but i could be worse, too! in fact, i left you a compliment on that picture that’s connected to your DW article but you were gone on vacation and unsubscribed so i think you didn’t see that e-mail. your picture just now prompted me to repeat the compliment.
yes, she’s cute – scratching behind your virtual ears! 🙂
i need to take a picture of myself, actually – now if i can remember where the timer is on my camera. and drag out photoshop. a new piece i’m doing for Humanities is “One Book” and someone, don’t know who, decided that everyone should have their picture in the site reading a book. some people just have their hands showing though – so that gave me the idea of a picture with my cat in my lap and i’m reading but no shot of my face – that is my fallback position!
cheers
Donna
Thank you for the friendly scratch behind the ears. But I really wasn’t fishing for compliments, I was searching for a way to lead into the story about the lady who sleeps with babies. It always fascinates me when people find creative and unusual ways to make a living. Blogs are another example of people finding ways to take their passion and develop it into something worthwhile or profitable — or both.
Virginia! I didn’t think you were “fishing for compliments”! I really had noticed your picture before, when you were in Italy and thought how good it was and just wanted to pass that on.
just realized that you are “VeeSees – so here’s another “scratch” – wonderful pictures, i esp like that one of the church in Italy.
cheers
Donna