Friday, May 15, 2009

The "J" word--Juggle

Can you juggle? Years ago I learned to keep three balls in the air for a while, but I never worked at it hard enough to master it.

On the other hand, like the rest of you, I’ve been juggling things all my life. In college, I juggled schoolwork, a job, the party scene, and managed to get through it without destroying my grade point average. I juggled bills, spending money, and rides for lack of parking. I even went through a period in my life where I was pretty adept at juggling men.

And then there’s the jugular vein (which has nothing to do with the word I started with, but sounds close enough and it does start with “j”). When I was teaching sixth grade, I had a student (yes, a sixth grader—and that wasn’t half as bad as the one with the gun a couple of years later.) come at my jugular vein with a knife. I guess you don’t need to ask why I changed from teaching to law.

So, I’ve juggled many things, survived an attack to the jugular, and even dated a juggler for a few years. Most of my friends probably couldn’t tell you his name. He was simply “The Juggler.” The relationship was an adventure. You can’t imagine the places a juggler can get you into. We stayed in Elvis Presley’s Palm Springs home (long after Elvis was gone), had a shot of Louis the XIII Cognac with some producer in Hollywood (at $100 a shot—totally lost on me), and hung out with Robin Williams at the Comedy Club for hours after it had closed. The juggler, nine years younger than me, had a maturity level at least ten years less than that. But then, what did I expect? After all, I was dating a man who played with his balls for a living.

What do you have the most trouble juggling? Or the most fun?

http://www.teresaburrell.com

4 comments:

  1. I once kept three balls in the air for a total of five passes. That's the extent of my juggling success.

    On the other hand, I wrote Unbinding the Stone while going to Grad School for Philosophy while working fulltime and moving about 50 miles further away from the city I was going to Grad School in, while raising a son. Then I wrote A Warrior Made while going back to college for a second degree in computer science, still working full time, while also raising a young daughter and starting up my Author Guy bookselling business to try to get Unbinding the Stone into the hands of the deserving masses.

    Is that what you mean?

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  2. That's exactly what I mean. Now that's some serious juggling!

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  3. Hey Teresa,
    I have to ask. Now how is the juggling going? I am guessing that you are juggling even more roles now. Author/Speaker/Promoter/marketer/sales woman/blogger/advertiser/money manager/travel agent... (and that is barely scratching the surface right?)That is a lot of hats to wear, but from what I can tell, you wear them well!
    Nick

    http://nickvalentino.blogspot.com

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