In August 2007 I began what is usually a 5-year journey to obtain a professional designation.  It required taking 5 seminar courses and related exams, with 5 years to complete them all with passing marks.

I finished in June 2009 and obtained my designation.  This was the only thing left on my checklist in order to be able to get state certification to teach pre-licensing and continuing education for insurance agents, which was my goal.

I will presumably be teaching my first continuing education class on Tuesday.

A couple of friends from work started the same designation process this past weekend.  I’ve been in contact with R off and on all weekend to see how it was going. 

Four of my classes were held in the same place that she is taking hers, in Clearwater (the 5th class I took was in Miami).  I can see the venue in my mind.  I can see the setup, and I can remember exactly how it felt to be in those classes.

I really miss it!  Even with the exam stress, I still really thrived in the learning environment.

There are other designations to earn, and many classes to teach.  I’d better get started!

Add new tag, Business, Education, Education and Training, Professional certification, Teacher

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My big goal at work for the last two and a half years has been getting a professional designation so I could become state certified to teach pre-licensing and continuing education for insurance agents.  I currently work a desk for a large insurance agency and while it’s ok, it’s not my passion.  Teaching and writing are.

Ever since I got certified I have been putting myself out there to any and all teaching opportunities.  I was asked by a local association to teach a class in December, but it was cancelled due to low enrollment (plus the course materials sucked).  In January I was supposed to teach two ethics classes at my office, but there were problems with the course paperwork that had to be filed with the state so those had to be cancelled.

In January I volunteered to teach a class for the local association this month, and they sent the course materials, which I’ve been working through.  Then yesterday they sent me the class roster, which means:  I AM TEACHING ON TUESDAY.

I am so excited about this.  It’s been a long road to get here, and Tuesday afternoon’s class will be the fulfillment of a big dream I had when I moved to Florida.  I know it’s the first of many, but I am just so excited!  And nervous!

Add new tag, Agency, Education, Financial Services, Florida, Insurance, Professional certification, Teacher

You would think that with the economy the way it is, the last thing that would be on people’s minds would be how to lose weight. This seems like the perfect time for comfort food, doesn’t it?

Of course, I am one of the many who still struggle with this, but I think I have finally found a plan that works for, and doesn’t cost a lot of money.

There are so many options out there for weight loss in addition to diet and exercise: pills, videos, even different types of weight loss surgery. Do your research and consult your doctor to decide what is best for you.

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Image by Tom Olliver via Flickr

These days I’m not just looking better, I’m *feeling* better.  And vice versa.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting on my couch on a Sunday night feeling gross and useless and ashamed of myself.

Gained 4 lbs over the holidays that I really truly did not need.  Broken out from PMS.  Dove stopped making my facial cleanser so I bought Olay and had an eczema flare-up.

Since that day I found two things that have helped me tremendously:

1.  Cetaphil Antibacterial Gentle Cleansing Bar.  I’ve always trusted Cetaphil when things got ugly, but I’ve never used the bar.  This bar took care of the breakout AND the flare up, and while my skin is not completely perfect again, it feels softer and smoother than it has felt in a really long time.

2.  SparkPeople.  I’ve been a member of this website in the past, but I really didn’t GET IT.  It’s completely free.  You can track food, you can track exercise, there are tons of helpful tips, a very active community, but I just wasn’t using it the way I should have.

I started tracking on Monday, January 25, and I’ve lost 5 lbs since then.  The community is awesome, the tips and information are top-notch, and I feel so much better about myself since I joined.

I also picked up a copy of The Spark: The 28-Day Breakthrough Plan for Losing Weight, Getting Fit, and Transforming Your Life by SparkPeople founder Chris Downie. I downloaded the e-book to my Blackberry and have been reading it in my downtime. Very inspirational.

Nowadays I am keeping track of everything I eat, taking the stairs as much as I can, and being an inspiration to the people I work with.  Me!  A fitness inspiration.  Who would have thought?

These are the things that are working for me these days.  What’s working for you?

Add new tag, cetaphil, Fitness, Health, sparkpeople, The Spark: The 28-Day Breakthrough Plan for Losing Weight Getting Fit and Transforming Your Life, Weight loss

Last Sunday afternoon I had the opportunity, for the fourth year in a row, to judge essays for our local Mensa scholarship contest.

I enjoy reading the essays, because I like to see what people are planning to do with their lives.  It also reminds me of when I was in high school, full of hope and dreams.

The contest is basically a 500-word essay about the student’s future plans.  It must be double spaced, with no name or other identifying information on it.

This year there were 56 essays.  Each is catalogued with an identifier, and those that blatantly disregard the rules are thrown out.  Of the ones that remain, three judges read them and score them based on grammar, organization, effectiveness, goal statement, goal support and overall impression.

Sometimes we have some really fun mistakes that make it into the essays.  (The “homicidal detective” will live in infamy.) 

Here are a couple that were slightly amusing, but could have been avoided:

1.  I do not doubt that I will not reach my goal of becoming a surgeon.  Double negative here.  I know what you were trying to say, but this tells me no one looked this over for you before you sent it out.

2.  I am sending you this essay in lieu of my goal to become a labratory research scientist.  You obviously don’t know what “in lieu of” means.

I think I write this every year, but it bears repeating.  Students, if you are looking for a scholarship, here are some helpful hints:

1.  Follow all of the directions for the essay contest.  You don’t want to get thrown out of competition because you didn’t double space, or because your name was on the paper, or because your answer doesn’t fit the question.  

2.  Paragraphs.  Use them.  We get many essays that are all one big paragraph on a piece of paper.  Sure, it’s double spaced, but I have to count off points for that, and I’m less likely to want to read it all the way through.  Most times, I don’t.

3.  Spelling/grammatical errors.  For heaven’s sake, have SOMEONE read over your essay before you send it in.  Make that someone a person who is very picky about grammar, spelling and punctuation.

4.  Don’t use words or phrases if you are unsure what they mean.  Look it up, or use a different word.

5.  State your goal early in the essay, and clearly.  Then back it up.  If you don’t tell me what your plans are in the first paragraph or two, I lose interest really quickly and move on to the next essay.  I don’t have time to figure it out.  TELL ME.

6.  No need to put word count on the page.  We don’t actually count the words.  If your essay is compelling, even if it’s 700 words we’re not going to take points off.

These are good tips for any essay contest, but most especially a Mensa contest.  We are extremely picky about sentence construction, grammar and spelling.   It may seem mean, but we’re giving away thousands of dollars every year just for a 500-word essay.

Good luck on your next essay!

English, Essay, essay tips, Grammar, mensa scholarship, scholarship, Writing

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When I was a kid, for a while we lived on a farm.  My parents had planted an acre or so with various vegetables (about 3 plants of everything except beans – there were about 25 miles of beans).  We also had chickens (nasty creatures – but tasty) and hogs (sweet creatures – but awful smelling).

Down the road a piece from our farm was a dairy farm.  In exchange for odd jobs and whatever else from my father, the dairy would give him milk in these big glass jars with metal screw-on lids.  This was cow-fresh milk, and it often arrived warm.

If you’ve never seen real fresh milk that hasn’t been pasteurized and homogenized yet, it separates rather quickly.  To make it taste normal enough to drink we would have to either stir it with a big spoon or shake the jar.

Sometimes when my dad was feeling industrious he would skim off some of the cream from the top of the milk jar, grab the mixer and spend a long while in the kitchen making butter.  This butter was never as yellow as the butter from the store, and it tasted somewhat different, but he was always very proud of it.

I, in my 11- and 12-year-old wisdom, thought he was crazy and hopelessly old-fashioned.  None of my friends’ dads made butter.  Of course, they also didn’t bring home milk in big glass jars, either.

We don’t have a farm now, just a few feet of space where we grow strawberries, tomatoes and some leafy greens.  No chickens, no hogs, and no dairy farm down the street.  I guess you’d call what is grown in our yard “organic” since the only thing we try to do is beat the bugs to the “crops” – no spraying involved.

I scored a free subscription to Organic Gardening magazine a little while back, and the latest issue is pretty interesting.  One of the feature articles in the magazine is on how to make flavorful butters and compound butters.  They start from cream, and show you the whole process.

I am intrigued.  I wonder where I can get some jarred milk around here?

Butter, compound butter, Cream, Dairy, herb butter, herbed butter, Milk, organic gardening

I am an insurance agent, but I deal in property and casualty insurance, mostly for businesses.  One of the things I don’t sell is life insurance.

While I am  not a big proponent of whole life insurance, I do think that term life insurance is a good idea.  If you have a family, children and assets, you owe it to your loved ones to protect those things in the event of your passing.

If you’re looking for affordable life insurance try wholesaleinsurance.net.

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Isn’t it weird how seemingly unrelated conditions can actually somehow be connected? Like how a sudden patch of gray hair could be an indicator of a stroke, or your balance can be affected by your ears.

I recently heard about a product called Simponi, which is a psoriatic arthritis treatment.

So what is psoriatic arthritis?  It’s exactly what it sounds like: a type of athritis that affects 10-30% of people who have the skin condition psoriasis.  Who knew skin conditions and joint pain could be related?

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One of the first people I met when I moved to Florida was R.  We worked together, and we were pretty close to the same age.  The first weekend I was in town we went to breakfast and bookstore browsing, and have been close friends pretty much ever since.

R is a cancer survivor, having had a particular type of cancer that is agressive and usually fatal.  She’s been in remission for a while, but goes monthly to Miami for MRIs and treatments for some other things she has going on.

This past week she had to go to Miami, and when she came back she was really sick, and started complaining over the course of days about some pain she was having.  When she finally called the doctor yesterday morning, they told her to get back to Miami right away and pack an overnight bag and that they suspected the worst – kidney failure.

She drove over that morning and was admitted and given a bunch of meds, but was told that they wouldn’t have any real answers for her until her labs came back today around noon.

People at work are understandably concerned, and I’ve been trying to straddle the line between what’s appropriate to tell and what will satisfy the audience.  Plus, I don’t know that much anyway, so all I can really say is “she feels better and will be seeing the doctor at noon”.

One of my coworkers came by this morning and asked me how panicked I was.  I looked at her quizzically.  Why would I be panicked?

She could have kidney failure! That would be horrible! Her poor children!

Well, sure, but she could also have a minor infection that’s treatable and they’ll send her home with some antibiotics and admonishments not to overdo it.

I just think it’s horrible!  I guess I’m just more compassionate than you are! and she stomped away. (This particular coworker is, per her own description, not a friend of R’s, and per my description, is definitely a drama queen.)

R has been keeping me up to date.  She’s the one panicking, facing an uncertain future, looking at her three beautiful babies and wondering if she’s going to see them grow up.  What do *I* have to worry about?

As I see it, my job as her friend is to be the calm one.  Let’s keep things in perspective, maybe smile a bit.  No one knows anything for sure just yet, so let’s focus on the positive.  I make jokes, I ask questions, and I listen.

I just don’t see how me being a ridiculous sobbing mess is going to help.

So am I doing it wrong?

In case you were wondering: It was a severe infection, but there has been very minimal kidney damage, and the doctors are so optimistic they are sending her home this afternoon with a prescription for meds and bed rest.

Cancer, Conditions and Diseases, Florida, friendship, Health, Kidney, Miami, panic

As years go, 2009 wasn’t such a bad one. I actually rather enjoyed it, despite a few hiccups. I wish I could say the same of this barely one month old 2010.

I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, because I can’t keep them. Irish made a resolution to quit smoking cigarettes, which is probably why I caught him smoking a cigar shortly after midnight on January 1.

I found a place to buy cigars online. Maybe we should stock up in case we have something to celebrate this year.

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