Day 4 of the sis-in-law challenge. Three things I am grateful for. And I am still urging others to chime in with their own positive posts from their own lives. Three things I am grateful for: (1) My mom-by-default. While I already mentioned my amazing siblings on Day 2, I want to call out my sister Julie specifically. When she was 10 years old and I was 6, my mom died. My older sibs were out of the house largely, so Julie needed to lug me everywhere with her. She also made our dinners, was in charge of housekeeping, and was pretty much responsible for all things my mom would have done. My dad was kind of crusty about Julies cooking at first. Imagine complaining about a 10-year-olds recipe for tomato sauce! People said he was hard on her because she looked so much like my mom. But it turned out that eventually Julie could make the best marinara youd find. Once many years later when I was living alone in my brothers house (while he was building a new one elsewhere), I was having a guy (Greg Gott?) over for dinner. I asked Julie to make that sauce, and I pretended that I had made it. Greg declared, There is no way you made this. He couldnt figure out where it came from, but he caught me. Ha. (2) My teachers, many of them. School gave me a foundation. For some people it is church, and I had that, too. In fact, my sponsors for confirmation at my church (by luck or is there really a God?) was my high school counselor George Wilkie and his wife. When my father died and my fathers second wife sold the house and moved out of district, knowing Mr. Wilkie mattered a lot. He petitioned the state to allow me to stay at my high school since circumstances in my step-home were marginal. Our school nurse wrote a statement for the petition saying it was for my wellbeing to keep me in that school given my stepmother was not fond of me and the household was dysfunctional with a capital D. They said if I signed it, no one ever had to know what it said since I was terrified of the repercussions. It was a life-changing event. I doubt anyone besides a handful of educators knows that this is how this happened. FB reveal! (3) This is going to sound so stupid, but it did make a huge difference. I am grateful for how well some of my employers managed their deferred compensation plans. Their investment and tax savvy allowed me to buy the Kingsley house in downtown Palo Alto before Apple or Phil were ever part of the picture. (Consider the current price per square foot is $1,136) My rule was that the house had to be within 2 miles of Peets because I could only run 4 miles max every morning. I doubt he checks FB much, but especially thanks Bob Marshalla. Financial independence is a blessing.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 16:46:06 +0000
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