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?

https://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?

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

  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

  4. But I love hats! As you can see by my photo. T

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