Life and Love - Who We Are
Well happy Superbowl weekend!
Even if you hate football, it's still "Superbowl Weekend" because you have to actively avoid it to escape :) As mosr know, we don't hate football and will be tuned in from home. We thought about going out, but that gets late and crowded when you have an 8:30 meeting as I do Monday.
This brings me to my subject line, what I do all day and what I have done. What Brian does all day and what he has done. Who we ARE right now in this moment. We sure are not a disease. It can seem like you are from the moment of a serious diagnosis, particularly the really scary monsters like like stage cancers, life threatening cardiac issues, and of course all of the serious neurological conditions - ALS being the king of all monsters still in 2017.
Brian worked for the Municipal Building Commission for 31 of his working years. He was in various roles. Maintenance, Security, and so on. In real life time, he worked for Minneapolis City Hall in a division of City employment, but kept an entity onto itself for political reasons seen fit in 1903 and written into our city charter. The idea was that City Hall was a place that housed the mayor but you did not want people being hired and fired depending on how political winds blew, so the Municipal Building Commission would be it's own thing.
Brian's job titles obscured that fact that he knew everyone in the building, had many connections to many people and always did things above and beyond his job description including the work of people with fancier titles. He never minded. His work served his needs and he was always involved in so much more besides. Brian has been a political activist all of his life, even before his adulthood. He has worked for more elected officials than a lot of people on payrolls for same. It's really been beyond "volunteering" for sure and he really likes to get the message out there that people should not sit and complain - be active for your beliefs political or otherwise.
Brian's skip trace biography is that he is one of four children and has survived two of his siblings, he was born in Minnesota in 1950 to a couple of beautiful parents who divorced when he was 12 - and divorce was not a common thing in 1962. His dad died just last year, his mom in about 2000. Brian went to collage in Loss Angeles and Minnesota. I am Brian's third wife. His first wife, Debbie was a brief marriage from his youth, he was married to second wife Doris for 13 years and they build a huge place together in Minnetrista. I mention the place because Brian mostly built the house. We met in 2007, got engaged in 2009, and married on April 12, 2010.
As for me, I was born in Robinsdale, MN July 1st, 1965. I am one of three children. My father died when I was four, my mom raised me on her own and essentially as an only child. My sister was ten years my senior, my brother 13 years older. I barely recall a sibling at home, and what I do recall was my brother, my fabulous brother, feeling like a dad. My sister died in 2007.
I got educated at the U of M, and did different types of work before landing on Property Management in my early 30's. All love matters, but my life in the end has been defined by both my huge love for Brian and my work in Property Management. It's not what I got educated for, but life is what happens when you are making other plans. Another thing, our thing is our huge love for animals. Six of our tribe of seven animals are rescues. Given the hassles of maintenance, they are the why we live in a house and not a charming on level all maintenance included condo or apartment. Investment be damned, the animals are the thing.
For work, the thing I do when I am not with Brian and the animals is be a Regional Property Manager at CommonBond Communities. I oversee 16 properties with 1,315 units. My portfolio includes the largest affordable site this side of the river, Skyline Tower in St Paul. Skyline is 502 units and you can search the property on Wiki for some history if you are weird and care lol. A Regional Manager supervises Property Managers and oversees the fiscal health of the properties in a portfolio. I interact a lot with HUD, monitoring agencies, and even our investors/partners. We are a non profit affordable housing provider, but some of the people we partner with are for profits. It's complicated, and its time consuming, and I love the tangible act of helping to provide people with affordable housing while supervising people in a positive way. I LOVE being a responsible and aware supervisor who works to meet goals and benchmarks while NOT being an asshat about it. Yes, it can be done. I am not sure if Regional is my last stop on the ladder or not, but I do know that I will retire, assuming that I eventually retire from a Property Management role of some type. I work in some way or another about fifty hours a week, I don't mind because more of it is from home now. I rarely stay at the office until 7 anymore, I come hang out at home and pick at things after dinner or before breakfast.
Brian retired from the MBC is October of 2014. He did a lot of work on our house after he retired, and now he likes writing, reading, and together we like binge watching stuff from Netflix, checking out the political landscape and hanging out with out animals and each other. We are fans also of brunches, happy hours, and Brian still finds ways to do way to many choirs. He loves to be busy and active. I marvel at how much he still does, with a cane and sometimes leg braces no less. I try to slow him down with little success. He is bullheaded but that is probably part of what I love about him. I wanted a man who didn't push me around, but I didn't want a pushover either so I got what I wanted. We have also put a lot of love into Brian's beautiful nephew Taj, who is going to grow up to be as amazing as he is today.
My mom is alive lives in Edina, we do spend time together and she just turned 81. My brother, niece, and great nephews life in Honolulu. Brian's neice and nephew live here, his surviving sister and several aunts are out of town. I miss my Honolulu family but I know all are happy. I was last there in 2014 and want to go back soon.
So there you have it, a bit of us. It's a good life. It's a great love. We are blessed. I am blessed. Love and God are in every bit of things to me.
Hope you are loving your life too.
Even if you hate football, it's still "Superbowl Weekend" because you have to actively avoid it to escape :) As mosr know, we don't hate football and will be tuned in from home. We thought about going out, but that gets late and crowded when you have an 8:30 meeting as I do Monday.
This brings me to my subject line, what I do all day and what I have done. What Brian does all day and what he has done. Who we ARE right now in this moment. We sure are not a disease. It can seem like you are from the moment of a serious diagnosis, particularly the really scary monsters like like stage cancers, life threatening cardiac issues, and of course all of the serious neurological conditions - ALS being the king of all monsters still in 2017.
Brian worked for the Municipal Building Commission for 31 of his working years. He was in various roles. Maintenance, Security, and so on. In real life time, he worked for Minneapolis City Hall in a division of City employment, but kept an entity onto itself for political reasons seen fit in 1903 and written into our city charter. The idea was that City Hall was a place that housed the mayor but you did not want people being hired and fired depending on how political winds blew, so the Municipal Building Commission would be it's own thing.
Brian's job titles obscured that fact that he knew everyone in the building, had many connections to many people and always did things above and beyond his job description including the work of people with fancier titles. He never minded. His work served his needs and he was always involved in so much more besides. Brian has been a political activist all of his life, even before his adulthood. He has worked for more elected officials than a lot of people on payrolls for same. It's really been beyond "volunteering" for sure and he really likes to get the message out there that people should not sit and complain - be active for your beliefs political or otherwise.
Brian's skip trace biography is that he is one of four children and has survived two of his siblings, he was born in Minnesota in 1950 to a couple of beautiful parents who divorced when he was 12 - and divorce was not a common thing in 1962. His dad died just last year, his mom in about 2000. Brian went to collage in Loss Angeles and Minnesota. I am Brian's third wife. His first wife, Debbie was a brief marriage from his youth, he was married to second wife Doris for 13 years and they build a huge place together in Minnetrista. I mention the place because Brian mostly built the house. We met in 2007, got engaged in 2009, and married on April 12, 2010.
As for me, I was born in Robinsdale, MN July 1st, 1965. I am one of three children. My father died when I was four, my mom raised me on her own and essentially as an only child. My sister was ten years my senior, my brother 13 years older. I barely recall a sibling at home, and what I do recall was my brother, my fabulous brother, feeling like a dad. My sister died in 2007.
I got educated at the U of M, and did different types of work before landing on Property Management in my early 30's. All love matters, but my life in the end has been defined by both my huge love for Brian and my work in Property Management. It's not what I got educated for, but life is what happens when you are making other plans. Another thing, our thing is our huge love for animals. Six of our tribe of seven animals are rescues. Given the hassles of maintenance, they are the why we live in a house and not a charming on level all maintenance included condo or apartment. Investment be damned, the animals are the thing.
For work, the thing I do when I am not with Brian and the animals is be a Regional Property Manager at CommonBond Communities. I oversee 16 properties with 1,315 units. My portfolio includes the largest affordable site this side of the river, Skyline Tower in St Paul. Skyline is 502 units and you can search the property on Wiki for some history if you are weird and care lol. A Regional Manager supervises Property Managers and oversees the fiscal health of the properties in a portfolio. I interact a lot with HUD, monitoring agencies, and even our investors/partners. We are a non profit affordable housing provider, but some of the people we partner with are for profits. It's complicated, and its time consuming, and I love the tangible act of helping to provide people with affordable housing while supervising people in a positive way. I LOVE being a responsible and aware supervisor who works to meet goals and benchmarks while NOT being an asshat about it. Yes, it can be done. I am not sure if Regional is my last stop on the ladder or not, but I do know that I will retire, assuming that I eventually retire from a Property Management role of some type. I work in some way or another about fifty hours a week, I don't mind because more of it is from home now. I rarely stay at the office until 7 anymore, I come hang out at home and pick at things after dinner or before breakfast.
Brian retired from the MBC is October of 2014. He did a lot of work on our house after he retired, and now he likes writing, reading, and together we like binge watching stuff from Netflix, checking out the political landscape and hanging out with out animals and each other. We are fans also of brunches, happy hours, and Brian still finds ways to do way to many choirs. He loves to be busy and active. I marvel at how much he still does, with a cane and sometimes leg braces no less. I try to slow him down with little success. He is bullheaded but that is probably part of what I love about him. I wanted a man who didn't push me around, but I didn't want a pushover either so I got what I wanted. We have also put a lot of love into Brian's beautiful nephew Taj, who is going to grow up to be as amazing as he is today.
My mom is alive lives in Edina, we do spend time together and she just turned 81. My brother, niece, and great nephews life in Honolulu. Brian's neice and nephew live here, his surviving sister and several aunts are out of town. I miss my Honolulu family but I know all are happy. I was last there in 2014 and want to go back soon.
So there you have it, a bit of us. It's a good life. It's a great love. We are blessed. I am blessed. Love and God are in every bit of things to me.
Hope you are loving your life too.
What a nice read. It's good to get to know you and Brian! Much love. Lynn
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