Tag Archives: Albert Lea Tribune

Grabatude Attitude

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Column: Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf

Who do you hang with? No, I don’t mean hang such as hanging upside down, hanging from a bungee cord or hanging a right or a left when driving a car. Who do you spend your time with and how do they influence how you interact with others in your life?

Recently, I was put in a situation that I was unsure of. I was invited to the Women of Faith concert in St. Paul. I wasn’t unsure of going to the concert, but I was going to be going with a good friend and we would be staying with her relatives. I did not know these people.

I did have some anxiety about staying in a home of someone I did not know, and I am not a shy person, not usually anyway. This was a little of a stretch for me.

Meeting strangers isn’t a hard thing for me to do, but usually when I meet them it is for a short amount of time. That isn’t what this would be. It would be a weekend with my friend and people I did not know. Would they like me? Would I like them? Would we have the same likes and dislikes? Would it matter?

On a recent blogtalkradio interview with Amy Beth Arkawy on the Amy Bethv Arkawy show, Amy made the remark that I was a positive and inspirational person. I reminded her that I am not like that all the time, ask my husband and kids, and a few years ago I would say I was a toxic person. It was not a hard thing to be, depending on the group I was with, to find something wrong with everything.

I am very good at crabbing, and when you are with others who are very good at crabbing you have a great crabfest. Soon though, that attitude becomes part of you, and it is easier to see the glass half empty rather than half full. Pretty soon I was the head crab and would start the crab sessions. I didn’t like the way I was, and I don’t want to be that person again.

When Amy Beth and I talked about inspiration (she is also a creativity coach), I reflected later on what helps me to keep a positive attitude. It is work.

I was very lucky in my crabbiness. My inspirational and optimistic friends did not desert me. Finally after hanging with them I was able to adopt their attitude most of the time. It is hard work to get to the place where it is easier to be optimistic than to be pessimistic and yet some days the crab is back.

I found that if I surround myself with positive people, positive messages and read positive materials that I can be more optimistic in the face of the ups and downs of my life. We can choose who we spend our time with.

Back to the scary, I am having a slumber party with women I don’t know. The minute the first woman got in the car with us I knew I was going to feel at home with her. She wore sparkly cool earrings. She laughed a lot. When the next woman joined our car on the way I immediately felt at home too. She had a case of water. I knew I would not be thirsty. I do that, I drag my water along. We finally arrived at the cute house where we would rest our heads and I would meet another stranger. We were greeted with a huge meal, dessert and the best part was that she was living in my dream cottage home. It felt like home amidst these strangers.

We left for the Xcel Energy Center, and it was named right for the weekend. It was a center full of energized woman, with positive messages and smiling faces. In the midst of strangers we all seemed to be surrounded by friends.

One of the speakers asked if we were crabby Christians. Was there a time when I felt that the silverware in the kitchen needing to be lined up perfectly was more important than the way I treated the people that were lined up in the pews? Do I make the unimportant material trappings in my home and in my church more important than treating people with kindness and respect or am I that crabby Christian along with being a toxic person in a group?

I took a chance to hang with some positive strangers. Those strangers are no longer strangers but friends that I hope to spend time with in the future. If I had let my fear and kept my crabby attitude, I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet new people that would have a positive influence on my life

Take a chance. Hang with someone new that makes you feel good about yourself. It might change your world and your attitude.

A quote by Elizabeth Edwards sums it up nicely:

“A positive attitude is not going to save you. What it’s going to do is, every day, between now and the day you die, whether that’s a short time from now or a long time from now, that every day, you’re going to actually live.”

Comma Challenged

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Icelandic comma left

Icelandic comma left (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I, like, to, write, but, I, am, comma, challenged! That’s right. I have a hard time with comma’s. I put them in, take them out, put them in, take them out.

Comma’s can change the entire context of a sentence and as a writer I am always unsure of where I should put my comma’s. I need to go back to school and brush up on the proper way to use comma’s and other detailed things that have to do with the proper use of words. However,  I don’t want to. Thank God for editors.

My editor at  the Albert Lea Tribune brushes up my writing. My editor at the Cozy Cat Press hopefully brushes up my comma’s. Of course if I put a comma after every word as I did in the first sentence I might get chastised a little.

The problem I have with more learning is time. I work full time, I write, I have a household to manage and I have volunteer activities that are important to me. I can make myself crazy worrying about my comma’s or I can put my heart out there with my writing and let the chips fall where they may.

I know there are mistakes in my books. There are people, that when they read a book they check grammar and spelling and yikes, comma’s. When I read a book I don’t notice those things unless they greatly impact the story, because I am interested in the story, the emotion or the suspense.

If I worry about the grammar and comma’s of the writer I can’t lose myself in the story and that to me is what it is all about. Unless something is very poorly written, I don’t notice because I am lost in the imagination of the writer of the book. I am lost in the reality or fantasy of the story.

If I take the time to worry that I might make a comma mistake or a grammar mistake that will be critsized by the reader I would never write.

So, criticize, my, use, of, comma’s. I, admit, I, am, comma, challenged. Look, beyond, a missing, or, misplaced, comma and, find, the, story. It, might, be, so, much, more, important, than, comma’s.

Something About Nothing-Vacationing in Albert Lea

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English: Albert Lea Lake from Myre-Big Island ...

English: Albert Lea Lake from Myre-Big Island State Park, Minnesota, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Julie Seedorf ©August  2012

I vacationed in Albert Lea for two weeks. Technically it wasn’t a vacation as I commuted back and forth to my home to work but it felt as if I were on vacation. The purpose of the vacation was to cat sit our two grand kitties. I never understood the purpose of traveling from town to a lake home every night during the summer as some people I knew did. I now understand the reasoning behind their decisions.

Our little vacation in Albert Lea was a time away from the phone in the evenings. I could relax and read a book and not see all the projects or house cleaning staring me in the face as it did at home. Plus I had the purring of two cute kitties to wake me up in the morning. Plus I decided to take it easy on the cooking for those two weeks.

It was fun living in a larger community for a couple of weeks. I visited the Farmer’s Market and my taste buds fell in love with the scones and bread from the K and K Bakery. I met a talented artist that makes hand-crafted jewelry. Her business name is as lovely as she is Lovely’s By Laura. Her designs caught my eye and I know I am going to be one of her customers in the future. The produce selection was outstanding and there were many talented people sharing their products. I was surprised that I also could buy gluten free products at this Farmers Market. Of course since I was cat sitting I had to buy cat toys and the Farmer’s Market could cover that need too.

My friends, kids and grandchildren all know that usually I can be seen with a coffee cup in my hand. Of course I had to visit the new store in Albert Lea, Prairie Winds Coffee. One of my favorite pastimes is to visit coffee houses and check out their coffee. I wasn’t disappointed. I loved the ambiance of the building and the coffee and the aroma satisfied my coffee cravings.

Shopping also had to be on my list of things to do on my vacation. As I was checking out Northbridge Mall I stopped at Grandma’s Kitchen and had the best maid rite I have had since I was a kid in the 50’s. It tasted like the maid rites I used to order at a little diner in my home town of Wells. While I was there I noticed the Pork Tenderloin on the menu. The owner assured me it lived up to the D’s Drive In pork tenderloins that used to be served in Albert Lea. I will check that out in the future.

I was in heaven. I could choose from so many eating establishments over the two weeks and I did. There were so many choices I can’t name them all.

Since my son in Iowa is a Hy-Vee employee of 18 years working for PDI as buyer I knew I must check out the Hy-Vee store. There is always a helpful smile in every aisle. I chose the natural and organic foods section.  These were foods I normally could not get in my local food market.  I found rice chips with varying seasonings, organic cereals and sauces and more. I found products and juices to try and were new to me. It was a healthy grocery shopping trip.

The Albert Lea Tribune office was also on my list to visit. I took the time to stop in and meet with the editor Tim Engstrom. I had only met Tim once six or so years ago so I thought it was time to see if I remembered what he looked like. I hate it when you reconnect with someone you haven’t seen in years and they don’t age. It must mean they live a life well lived. Tim is one of those people.  It was great visiting with him and getting a tour of the paper.

Each day I had the blessing of driving by the lake since it was only a block from where we were staying.  I could stop, take a breath, take in the beauty and be thankful that for two weeks I had those views every day.

We take our communities for granted. We focus on what our communities don’t offer and fail to see what they do offer daily. We fail to see what we are lucky to have in our communities. This time around I didn’t make it on the Pelican Breeze or to the Freeborn County Fair. I didn’t make it to some hiking trails or community theater. There wasn’t time to check out the numerous churches in the area or the specialty shops. I will save those for another cat sitting vacation.

I can’t end this without talking about my grand kitties. I also had time to write so I documented my visit with my grand kitties for their parents in The Cat Chronicles. You can read it on my blog at justalittlefluff.com. It is not a great literary work just a fun piece from the perspective of a cat.  It was a joy watching those kitties each day. I miss them waking me up in the morning with a paw on my arm or a kiss on my nose. I miss the purring in the middle of the night and the unconditional love they gave us while we were vacationing in their house. What more could I want from a vacation?