For my Thursday Thirteen I am going to head down memory lane and then skip back up remembering and reminiscing some of my favorite items of clothing from over the past several decades!
1) My Frye boots circa 1978. I could not believe I talked my Mom into getting them as my major Christmas present that year! I believe they were about $100 way back then! I loved those boots and wore them over jeans or under jeans. I wore them to death and had them resoled and then a hole popped out in one of the creases. Guess I was too hard on them! I ended up putting them in a Goodwill bin around 1990.
2) My reddish suede coat with the big fur collar also circa 1975. It was fabulous and warm! I wore that coat well into the 1980's when some ass made a remark about how 1970ish it looked! I stored it at my parents and the fur yellowed and then it was gone. I imagine Mom put it in some Goodwill bin for me. I certainly wish I had it now.
3) A friend of my parents gave Mom a cashmere coat that her husband had worn in the Navy. It was black and felt like butter. It was over sized but it did not matter. When you slipped that coat on it made you feel like a million dollars. My sister Omega stole it from my parents closet and claimed it as her own. I could have killed her. I imagine it is still in her closet. At least I hope so, that was the best coat ever.
4) In high school I found this polyester mini skirt with a matching top that had little seashell buttons all the way down the front. I ore this sexy outfit with a pair of ....
5).....Aigner white sandals with flat heels! I was working as a lifeguard and was so tan that summer. The sandals with the red flared mini was just too cute. Then, while riding around town, which was the only entertainment us kids had way back when, smoking cigarettes and trying to find someone to buy us beer a cigarette ash fell into my lap and OH NO! polyester! A major melt hole happened.
6) I was asked to a Valentine dance by one of the hottest guys in the Frat House! (no he did not come to the reunion last summer) so I had to get a killer dress. I found this maroon color midi wth long sleeves and an empire waste and terrific lines. I loved that dress and my good friend C.F. borrowed the dress to go to another Frat dance and I worried all night that she might elope and then I'd never get the dress back. I think it hung in my Mom's house until she gave it to charity.
7) The red velvet jacket! Lord have mercy. I wore that garment with everything. The elbows wore out and we patched them. The lining ripped in sections and hung by threads. It did not bother me one bit. But it did my mother. She made a lining for the jacket and "fixed it". It never hung quite right after that. Boo-hoo.
8) Sometime in the 90's baby doll dresses became in style. I had one that I wore with black tights and cowboy boots. I thought I looked real gooooooooood. lol.
9) When Omega got engaged all her bridesmaids were to wear black. I was in charge of the guest book and required to wear black also. I found this beautiful short black cocktail dress at Shillito's that had a gossamer black mesh finish over the skit and a black net top over a plunging neckline and short selves. It was beautiful and all night long I was complimented on the dress. I still have it, and I need to loose 20 pounds to fit back into it. But it is a classic and gorgeous.
10) I found a black linen wrap around skirt in the mid 1990's that I have worn to death! It went with everything and was kind of on the short side. People took to calling me "Legs" as the Beverage Company. With a pair of heels and black stockings - man, I could turn heads!
11) I am the Queen of recycling and spend a lot of time going through all the consigned clothing in this great little shop in Lex called Sassy Fox. I have scored mucho lotso good things there including a long black overcoat with a removable lining. It was sized a petite and since I am about 5-5 it fit very well all except for the arms. But as luck would have it the cuffs would roll down. I wore that coat during the fall and spring seasons while living in Ft. Wayne and once while visiting a new account I brushed up against a wall they were painting! Horrors! The bottom hem was totally compromised. That was several years ago and I found I could not part with the fabulous coat. Once again a classic design and flowing lines. One feels like the heroine in a vintage 1940's black and white movie while crossing a street with the coat fluttering in the breeze. I took a black marker to see if I could color over the white paint! It worked! I am back in business.
12) There is this little old Flea Market in Bowling Green that I frequent several times a year. I go for the honey that is sold there and for the handbag man in the back area of the last section before the antiques. Why should one pay several hundred dollars (and more!) for a name brand handbag when you can get a perfectly good knock off for $35? And they are excellent knock offs. Makes one wonder if they might just be rejected Real Deal or stolen Real Deal. I found this rosy pink JimmyChoo knock off that I will use this spring - again. This will be the third spring I have used this jumbo size fit everything but the kitchen sink bag. I love it!
13) Last is the pair of skinny pants I found at TJ Maxx that fits like a glove but is so comfortable that I can wear them everyday if I am not careful! With my Walmart Ugg knock offs I am the epitome of fashion!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Look I'm Flying!!
Sunday Scribbling for January 23 - ETERNITY
I had jotted down some thoughts in a general outline of what I am planning to write and then I get the brilliant idea that I will lift sort of jazzy quote as a title for this essay and I found this....
As a young child I would lay in my bed sleepless and ponder the error of my ways, perhaps feeling guilty over some petty crime I had committed that day and how I was going to end up in hell, the fiery furnace pit of flames eternally damned until the end of time. And Eternal meant there was no end to time. It would just go on forever and forever. For infinity, a word I later learned. I would be thirsty and my flesh would be burning and I could not drink. It was just too horrible to contemplate especially a little innocent mind as my own way back then. I did not want to meet an end such as that, burning in hell with the other BIG LOSERS like Hitler.
I learned in my years of parochial school, you had to protect your soul from sin. I imagined my soul like the white sheets my Mom hung out to dry on the clothes line in the back yard, bleached and beautiful in the sparking sun. That was my soul. I envisioned sin as tiny little black marks on the soul. A mortal sin would make the soul entirely black! If you happened to die with a black soul - well, it was curtains for you. Eternal damnation with Hitler.
Mortal sins were hard to figure out. Sure there were the ten commandments, but us Catholics had a whole lot more sins than that. Honor your Mother and Father had a bunch of sub categories that included "talking back" and "not showing respect". And there was the tricky one that went Thou shall not kill. Was it OK to kill when there was a war going on? Was it OK to kill, like the cowboy television shows we adored because my Dad watched them, when you were in a gun fight? Did you get a pass for that?
How about the one "coveting your neighbors wife"? Heck we didn't even know what the hell covet meant let alone have some opinion about it or the opportunity to break it! And this was before woman's lib apparently. Was it okay to cover the husband?
Catholics have it good, I thought when I was a kid. We just go to confession, the washing machine for the soul, and admit to our sins.
Not mortal sins, mind you. But that sub category of sinfulness known to all Catholic as venial sins. Once a week all the classes would take turns being marched across Main Street and enter the church to have our confessions heard. We would all sit in the front of the church far away from the confessional booths in the back. You would try and be holy and quiet, reflecting on what sins you had committed since your last confession. After bearing your soul to the priest you would kneel like a good little repentant Catholic and say your penance. Usually three Hail Mary's and an Our Father. You better be a few minutes getting it over with or the rest of your class would know you had really had a doozy of a week.
As I would lay in bed and worry about dying with sin on my soul I would also think about eternity in Heaven! I imagined that I had not been that bad and if I did kick the bucket I would get an audience with God. I would have some time to look over my list of offenses and make my case for leniency. God, being an all kind and loving God, would grant me dispensation on some of the sins but I would be given some Purgatory time for others.
I would go do my purgatory time, probably with a lot of people I would know and then after a reasonable amount of time I would be admitted into heaven.
And everyone would be young and at the peak of their beauty and brilliance. I would look just like Sally Field and George Harrison would be my boyfriend. In my heaven scenario I was all grown up and not trapped in a nine year old body.
This is what I think about when I see the word Eternity!
I had jotted down some thoughts in a general outline of what I am planning to write and then I get the brilliant idea that I will lift sort of jazzy quote as a title for this essay and I found this....
A Catholic is raised with the idea that he will die any minute now and if he doesn't live his life in a certain way, this death is an introduction to an eternity of pain.
Don DeLillo
As a young child I would lay in my bed sleepless and ponder the error of my ways, perhaps feeling guilty over some petty crime I had committed that day and how I was going to end up in hell, the fiery furnace pit of flames eternally damned until the end of time. And Eternal meant there was no end to time. It would just go on forever and forever. For infinity, a word I later learned. I would be thirsty and my flesh would be burning and I could not drink. It was just too horrible to contemplate especially a little innocent mind as my own way back then. I did not want to meet an end such as that, burning in hell with the other BIG LOSERS like Hitler.
I learned in my years of parochial school, you had to protect your soul from sin. I imagined my soul like the white sheets my Mom hung out to dry on the clothes line in the back yard, bleached and beautiful in the sparking sun. That was my soul. I envisioned sin as tiny little black marks on the soul. A mortal sin would make the soul entirely black! If you happened to die with a black soul - well, it was curtains for you. Eternal damnation with Hitler.
Mortal sins were hard to figure out. Sure there were the ten commandments, but us Catholics had a whole lot more sins than that. Honor your Mother and Father had a bunch of sub categories that included "talking back" and "not showing respect". And there was the tricky one that went Thou shall not kill. Was it OK to kill when there was a war going on? Was it OK to kill, like the cowboy television shows we adored because my Dad watched them, when you were in a gun fight? Did you get a pass for that?
How about the one "coveting your neighbors wife"? Heck we didn't even know what the hell covet meant let alone have some opinion about it or the opportunity to break it! And this was before woman's lib apparently. Was it okay to cover the husband?
Catholics have it good, I thought when I was a kid. We just go to confession, the washing machine for the soul, and admit to our sins.
Not mortal sins, mind you. But that sub category of sinfulness known to all Catholic as venial sins. Once a week all the classes would take turns being marched across Main Street and enter the church to have our confessions heard. We would all sit in the front of the church far away from the confessional booths in the back. You would try and be holy and quiet, reflecting on what sins you had committed since your last confession. After bearing your soul to the priest you would kneel like a good little repentant Catholic and say your penance. Usually three Hail Mary's and an Our Father. You better be a few minutes getting it over with or the rest of your class would know you had really had a doozy of a week.
As I would lay in bed and worry about dying with sin on my soul I would also think about eternity in Heaven! I imagined that I had not been that bad and if I did kick the bucket I would get an audience with God. I would have some time to look over my list of offenses and make my case for leniency. God, being an all kind and loving God, would grant me dispensation on some of the sins but I would be given some Purgatory time for others.
I would go do my purgatory time, probably with a lot of people I would know and then after a reasonable amount of time I would be admitted into heaven.
And everyone would be young and at the peak of their beauty and brilliance. I would look just like Sally Field and George Harrison would be my boyfriend. In my heaven scenario I was all grown up and not trapped in a nine year old body.
This is what I think about when I see the word Eternity!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Confessions of a Cook Book Junkie part II
Well it Thursday Thirteen time again! Yay.
I am cook book obsessed. I can not stop collecting them! Even if I never use them (Nigella Fresh). I never buy them new but score them at used book stores, yard sales, flea markets, given to me, and once in an abandoned barn. That one is my favorite and my main go to when I must find out how to do something. So, these are 13 of my random favorite book books .
1) Recipes from the Trustees House Daily Fare - We Make You Kindly Welcome! With a name like that it better be good. This is the thin little cook book that could that I wrote about yesterday from Shakertown, as us locals call Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. Filled with the most simple basic food stuff that is out of this world. Of course they have the advantage of growing most the vegetables on the land outside the Side Porch Dining Room! Some additional favorites are the Peanut Butter cookies (I can make these in my sleep! They are so good and so easy) and candied baby carrots.
2) The Complete Book of Oriental Cooking by Myra Waldo. I bought this cookbook when I was playing house a long long time ago. I had no idea how to cook but I knew I loved Chinese food. This is one of those little paperbacks that cost $1.75. That is how long ago and how old this little beauty truly is. I have made the fried rice recipe forever since discovering it among the different ethnic culinary chapters. When Bridget was a child and would bring home her school age friends they would beg me to whip this up for them! Imagine that!
3) What's Cooking In Kentucky - This is one of those spiral cookbooks that is put out yearly by the Ladies in the "group". Be it a church or a Junior League, the pages are filled with family secret recipes by Mrs. Ralph Moonglow (I'm richer than you) and Miss Edwina Cooter (old maid) and many other ladies who's identities are always attached to their husband or lack of one. This particular book was given to me by the family of a guy I was dating way back when. I will be the first to admit I knew nothing about cooking. My Mom was a scholar not interested in spending much time in the kitchen. Her culinary skills were limited to the Home Economics class she took during the 1940's. I have an idea she struggled with that elective. I used the banana bread recipe in this book for years and years. It took a long time to find a better one.
4) To Market To Market - The Junior League of Owensboro, Ky Inc. I love the graphics of this cook book! I can't remember if I have actually used a recipe from this collection of family favorites, but I always enjoy the looking at the little piggies.
5) The Green Thumb Preserving Guide - Another jewel from the 1970's when I dove head first into teaching myself how to cook. For some reason I fancied myself as some sort of live off the land hippie back then. I really thought I would grow a garden and can my own food. What a joke! But the book is jam packed with marvelous recipes.
6) Union Square Cafe Cook Book - I believe I found this book on the shelves of the Goodwill on Ft. Campbell Blvd. I was lucky to nab this fantastic culinary masterpiece! The Ribollia Soup??? To die for! I made it, after spending about $100 on the ingredients, because everything was required to be FRESH, and almost ate the entire huge pot at one sitting! Joe even said "Hmmmm pretty good."
7) Keep it Simple - Ruth Brent 1972. Another Goodwill find that I picked up because I could not resist the picture of Ms. Brent and her beehive hair do on the back cover.
8) Farm Journal County Cookbook - The banana bread in this book is made with a cup of crushed up bran flakes. OMG. It was so delicious and dark that it blew my mind.
9) Our Daily Bread - Stella Standard - I taught myself how to make pancakes from this cook book along with yet another banana bread recipe! The cinnamon yeast rolls I tried for the first time, once again this is a 1970's attempt at domesticating myself, were good. I have never been successful at getting dough to rise. This is a common topic of conversation I have with anyone who tells me they bake bread. Even my BIL is good at making dough rise! Putting a pan of hot water in the oven under the bowl. I suck at this.
10) The Whole Earth Cook Book - I have a large collection from the 1970's - lol.
11) Farmhouse Cook Book - Susan Herman Loomis - This is one of those floppy big paper backs that has a primitive American painting theme on the front cover. I am a sucker for this type of marketing ploy. This lady traveled the US in search of the best family farm recipes. She found them by pulling up at some town square rolling down the window and asking those old codgers sitting on the Court House benches "who is the best cook in town?". It's a wonderful cook book filled with scrumptious ingredients and mouth watering concoctions. Some of my fav's have been the Herbed Summer Veggies - who knew a mess of fresh vegetables all mixed up together could be THE BOMB. Oh yea, fresh scrape off the cob corn put it over the top. Winner winner chicken dinner. And the granola recipe? Oh baby.
12) Lunch Upon a Time - Simple favorites from the Strawberry Patch. The Strawberry Patch was a restaurant once upon a time in fair Louisville. This little bitty home made book with its red cover and green binding complete with staples has a simple but satisfying Hot Brown tutorial that no one can mess up. Not even me. We licked the plates if I remember correctly. Then I could do it from memory!
13) Prudence Penny -Binding of the American Woman Cook Book San Francisco -
This is the Mac Daddy of my collection. This is the one that I found in an abandoned barn on a piece of property we were renting long ago in a far away land in another life time. Everything I have actually learned about cooking and preparing meals is in this book, spelled out for the dumbest of the culinary challenged. Want to know how to cook corn on the cob? It's in there. Want to know how to chop up a whole chicken? It's in there? The perfect pie crust? It's in there. This cook book even takes the time to tell you the do's and dont's, the why's and why not's...in other words, you will have to remove this old green cracked and aged 1954 cook book out of my clenched hands if you ever try to even borrow it! It's my TOP SECRET to success as a cook. Some may argue that point, some may not. That is if they know what's good for them.
Thank you Thursday 13 for anther hour whiled away and pleasantly happy doing so.
I am cook book obsessed. I can not stop collecting them! Even if I never use them (Nigella Fresh). I never buy them new but score them at used book stores, yard sales, flea markets, given to me, and once in an abandoned barn. That one is my favorite and my main go to when I must find out how to do something. So, these are 13 of my random favorite book books .
1) Recipes from the Trustees House Daily Fare - We Make You Kindly Welcome! With a name like that it better be good. This is the thin little cook book that could that I wrote about yesterday from Shakertown, as us locals call Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. Filled with the most simple basic food stuff that is out of this world. Of course they have the advantage of growing most the vegetables on the land outside the Side Porch Dining Room! Some additional favorites are the Peanut Butter cookies (I can make these in my sleep! They are so good and so easy) and candied baby carrots.
2) The Complete Book of Oriental Cooking by Myra Waldo. I bought this cookbook when I was playing house a long long time ago. I had no idea how to cook but I knew I loved Chinese food. This is one of those little paperbacks that cost $1.75. That is how long ago and how old this little beauty truly is. I have made the fried rice recipe forever since discovering it among the different ethnic culinary chapters. When Bridget was a child and would bring home her school age friends they would beg me to whip this up for them! Imagine that!
3) What's Cooking In Kentucky - This is one of those spiral cookbooks that is put out yearly by the Ladies in the "group". Be it a church or a Junior League, the pages are filled with family secret recipes by Mrs. Ralph Moonglow (I'm richer than you) and Miss Edwina Cooter (old maid) and many other ladies who's identities are always attached to their husband or lack of one. This particular book was given to me by the family of a guy I was dating way back when. I will be the first to admit I knew nothing about cooking. My Mom was a scholar not interested in spending much time in the kitchen. Her culinary skills were limited to the Home Economics class she took during the 1940's. I have an idea she struggled with that elective. I used the banana bread recipe in this book for years and years. It took a long time to find a better one.
4) To Market To Market - The Junior League of Owensboro, Ky Inc. I love the graphics of this cook book! I can't remember if I have actually used a recipe from this collection of family favorites, but I always enjoy the looking at the little piggies.
5) The Green Thumb Preserving Guide - Another jewel from the 1970's when I dove head first into teaching myself how to cook. For some reason I fancied myself as some sort of live off the land hippie back then. I really thought I would grow a garden and can my own food. What a joke! But the book is jam packed with marvelous recipes.
6) Union Square Cafe Cook Book - I believe I found this book on the shelves of the Goodwill on Ft. Campbell Blvd. I was lucky to nab this fantastic culinary masterpiece! The Ribollia Soup??? To die for! I made it, after spending about $100 on the ingredients, because everything was required to be FRESH, and almost ate the entire huge pot at one sitting! Joe even said "Hmmmm pretty good."
7) Keep it Simple - Ruth Brent 1972. Another Goodwill find that I picked up because I could not resist the picture of Ms. Brent and her beehive hair do on the back cover.
8) Farm Journal County Cookbook - The banana bread in this book is made with a cup of crushed up bran flakes. OMG. It was so delicious and dark that it blew my mind.
9) Our Daily Bread - Stella Standard - I taught myself how to make pancakes from this cook book along with yet another banana bread recipe! The cinnamon yeast rolls I tried for the first time, once again this is a 1970's attempt at domesticating myself, were good. I have never been successful at getting dough to rise. This is a common topic of conversation I have with anyone who tells me they bake bread. Even my BIL is good at making dough rise! Putting a pan of hot water in the oven under the bowl. I suck at this.
10) The Whole Earth Cook Book - I have a large collection from the 1970's - lol.
11) Farmhouse Cook Book - Susan Herman Loomis - This is one of those floppy big paper backs that has a primitive American painting theme on the front cover. I am a sucker for this type of marketing ploy. This lady traveled the US in search of the best family farm recipes. She found them by pulling up at some town square rolling down the window and asking those old codgers sitting on the Court House benches "who is the best cook in town?". It's a wonderful cook book filled with scrumptious ingredients and mouth watering concoctions. Some of my fav's have been the Herbed Summer Veggies - who knew a mess of fresh vegetables all mixed up together could be THE BOMB. Oh yea, fresh scrape off the cob corn put it over the top. Winner winner chicken dinner. And the granola recipe? Oh baby.
12) Lunch Upon a Time - Simple favorites from the Strawberry Patch. The Strawberry Patch was a restaurant once upon a time in fair Louisville. This little bitty home made book with its red cover and green binding complete with staples has a simple but satisfying Hot Brown tutorial that no one can mess up. Not even me. We licked the plates if I remember correctly. Then I could do it from memory!
13) Prudence Penny -Binding of the American Woman Cook Book San Francisco -
This is the Mac Daddy of my collection. This is the one that I found in an abandoned barn on a piece of property we were renting long ago in a far away land in another life time. Everything I have actually learned about cooking and preparing meals is in this book, spelled out for the dumbest of the culinary challenged. Want to know how to cook corn on the cob? It's in there. Want to know how to chop up a whole chicken? It's in there? The perfect pie crust? It's in there. This cook book even takes the time to tell you the do's and dont's, the why's and why not's...in other words, you will have to remove this old green cracked and aged 1954 cook book out of my clenched hands if you ever try to even borrow it! It's my TOP SECRET to success as a cook. Some may argue that point, some may not. That is if they know what's good for them.
Thank you Thursday 13 for anther hour whiled away and pleasantly happy doing so.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Confessions of a Cook Book Junkie
The first cookbook I ever owned was given to me by my Mama as a Christmas present. She inscribed it with this cheery note, "To remember your summer at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village." I came across the stained and dog eared book while cleaning the book case that houses my collection of a 1001 such books. But this one is special. This one is filled not only with delicious simple Shaker fare but also with those memories of 30 years ago.
I was fresh from my first year at college and for the summer waited tables at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. I not only served the simple Shaker culinary delights, I dressed as a Shaker. A long yellow gingham dress with a white apron with the cutest little white bonnet perched upon the top of my head. The servers and bus boys and kitchen staff were mostly young high school and college age kids from around the area. We were a motley crew underneath our Shaker camouflage. We were practically living history for the many tourist that found the Village, somewhere south west of Lexington, over the river and up beyond the Palisades of the muddy Kentucky sitting on some of the most fertile ground in the bluegrass. The Shakers sought out a solitary place way back in the 1800's, far away from the maddening crowd. They tried to live their philosophy without interference from the outside world, but the worked did knock on their door many times most notably during the civil war.
We cared nothing about that, dressed in our 1800 outfits. Their politics (pacifists) and their religious views(celibacy) meant nothing to us. We just wanted our pay checks and our free food!
That was the summer I gained five pounds.
Why? The food was marvelous. And it was abundant! We had many tasks to take up the lull time between lunch and dinner. One of my favorites was making the butter balls. This required the use of two paddles that formed the yellow delicacies as you massaged the wad of vein clogging wonderfulness into perfect tiny balls which you flipped into ice water to await the moment they were slung on a bread plate for human consumption.
Another task was to cut, as thinly as possible, lemons, rinds and all, for the coveted Lemon Pie (pg.18) which was so frequently ordered that we would run out to every ones disappointment because all we had left was Chess pie.(page 36) "What's that?" "Well, it's like pecan pie only without pecans."
The corn bread, baked in tiny heavy iron molds to resemble an ear of corn, were exquisite. I ate a lot of those with the rejected butter balls.
The baked eggplant (page 47) was the first time I ever allowed that strange looking vegetable to enter my mouth. My mother and eggplant!! Get out of here! But once I tasted the Shaker version, I could not get enough.
Squash casserole? Well I never knew sunshine could be eaten! (page 48).
Every time I see the small cookbook with the torn corner it brings back all these sights and sounds, aroma's and the tastes. It transports me back to a time when I was so young that I could fit in the dumb waiter and take a ride to the basement.
I wonder if any of the Shakers did that?
I was fresh from my first year at college and for the summer waited tables at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. I not only served the simple Shaker culinary delights, I dressed as a Shaker. A long yellow gingham dress with a white apron with the cutest little white bonnet perched upon the top of my head. The servers and bus boys and kitchen staff were mostly young high school and college age kids from around the area. We were a motley crew underneath our Shaker camouflage. We were practically living history for the many tourist that found the Village, somewhere south west of Lexington, over the river and up beyond the Palisades of the muddy Kentucky sitting on some of the most fertile ground in the bluegrass. The Shakers sought out a solitary place way back in the 1800's, far away from the maddening crowd. They tried to live their philosophy without interference from the outside world, but the worked did knock on their door many times most notably during the civil war.
We cared nothing about that, dressed in our 1800 outfits. Their politics (pacifists) and their religious views(celibacy) meant nothing to us. We just wanted our pay checks and our free food!
That was the summer I gained five pounds.
Why? The food was marvelous. And it was abundant! We had many tasks to take up the lull time between lunch and dinner. One of my favorites was making the butter balls. This required the use of two paddles that formed the yellow delicacies as you massaged the wad of vein clogging wonderfulness into perfect tiny balls which you flipped into ice water to await the moment they were slung on a bread plate for human consumption.
Another task was to cut, as thinly as possible, lemons, rinds and all, for the coveted Lemon Pie (pg.18) which was so frequently ordered that we would run out to every ones disappointment because all we had left was Chess pie.(page 36) "What's that?" "Well, it's like pecan pie only without pecans."
The corn bread, baked in tiny heavy iron molds to resemble an ear of corn, were exquisite. I ate a lot of those with the rejected butter balls.
The baked eggplant (page 47) was the first time I ever allowed that strange looking vegetable to enter my mouth. My mother and eggplant!! Get out of here! But once I tasted the Shaker version, I could not get enough.
Squash casserole? Well I never knew sunshine could be eaten! (page 48).
Every time I see the small cookbook with the torn corner it brings back all these sights and sounds, aroma's and the tastes. It transports me back to a time when I was so young that I could fit in the dumb waiter and take a ride to the basement.
I wonder if any of the Shakers did that?
Monday, January 17, 2011
Invisible
Congratulations to Sunday Scribbling for the 250th prompt!
I picked up the telephone and silently cursed the Operations Secretary for taking some time off. Granted it was some much needed time off, but in our small four person office the job of filling in lands right here.
"May I help you?" I ask after identifying myself to the caller.
"I want to file a complaint!" the high pitched whiny voice began, "I am watching TV and these Victoria Secret commercials are disgusting!"
"Oh brother" I think to myself, "A crazy person!"
"Well I think you are calling the wrong place. Perhaps you should be calling the television station and voice your concerns"
"No" he/she began screaming, "I want to talk to YOU about this garbage they are showing on the television so that any person can see!"
At this point, I had no idea if this was a man or a woman. The pitch of his/her voice was becoming higher and higher as he/she truly began to get into their rage about Victoria Secret. I did not know how to address the caller, so I just blurted out, "Mam or Sir, with the way you are yelling at me I can not distinguish which one, you can change the channel you know".
This really set him/her off some more.
"I want to speak to someone at Victoria Secret! Connect me to the store right away! This is disgusting filth and we all need to stand up and revolt against this depravity that is shoved down our throats day after day! Someone has to be held accountable for this pornography being flaunted in our face day after day! It's an out range and I going tell them just how I feel about half naked woman walking around my living room!"
"Sir! sir, you must calm down, if you call the television station carrying on like this they will think you are a NUT CASE!"
"Just give me the number to Victoria Secret if you won't connect me, I'm going to tell them a thing or two".
I just took the 50-50 guess this was a man. "Sir, I will not give you the number. The people working there are just trying to earn a living. They are not trying to corrupt our society!"
"You go to hell" and they hung up.
Good Lord. Being on the other end of a telephone gives you a certain bravado and courage to be a total Loony Tune if you do not have to face, or make eye contact with the person you are trying to intimidate with harsh impactful forceful rhetoric.
But actually you are just a whiny invisible person attached to a whiny invisible voice buzzing around my ear like a pesky gnat. I wish I could slap you.
Being invisible gives people an extra dose of courage and outrage.
I picked up the telephone and silently cursed the Operations Secretary for taking some time off. Granted it was some much needed time off, but in our small four person office the job of filling in lands right here.
"May I help you?" I ask after identifying myself to the caller.
"I want to file a complaint!" the high pitched whiny voice began, "I am watching TV and these Victoria Secret commercials are disgusting!"
"Oh brother" I think to myself, "A crazy person!"
"Well I think you are calling the wrong place. Perhaps you should be calling the television station and voice your concerns"
"No" he/she began screaming, "I want to talk to YOU about this garbage they are showing on the television so that any person can see!"
At this point, I had no idea if this was a man or a woman. The pitch of his/her voice was becoming higher and higher as he/she truly began to get into their rage about Victoria Secret. I did not know how to address the caller, so I just blurted out, "Mam or Sir, with the way you are yelling at me I can not distinguish which one, you can change the channel you know".
This really set him/her off some more.
"I want to speak to someone at Victoria Secret! Connect me to the store right away! This is disgusting filth and we all need to stand up and revolt against this depravity that is shoved down our throats day after day! Someone has to be held accountable for this pornography being flaunted in our face day after day! It's an out range and I going tell them just how I feel about half naked woman walking around my living room!"
"Sir! sir, you must calm down, if you call the television station carrying on like this they will think you are a NUT CASE!"
"Just give me the number to Victoria Secret if you won't connect me, I'm going to tell them a thing or two".
I just took the 50-50 guess this was a man. "Sir, I will not give you the number. The people working there are just trying to earn a living. They are not trying to corrupt our society!"
"You go to hell" and they hung up.
Good Lord. Being on the other end of a telephone gives you a certain bravado and courage to be a total Loony Tune if you do not have to face, or make eye contact with the person you are trying to intimidate with harsh impactful forceful rhetoric.
But actually you are just a whiny invisible person attached to a whiny invisible voice buzzing around my ear like a pesky gnat. I wish I could slap you.
Being invisible gives people an extra dose of courage and outrage.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Oh Boy!! A Thursday Thirteen!
I am going to have to make one of my infamous lists about things to write about. Until then this list off the top of my head will have to do.
Thirteen Good things that happened to me Yesterday
1) I was in Borders books the day before and saw a box of exquisite Christmas cards, exquisite to me I suppose because if they were so awesome why would they still be there marked down 75%. I hid them at the unused front check out area and when I returned the next day (yesterday) they had been moved - back to the 75% off counter! But there they were, waiting for me.
2) Received the Martha Stewert LIVING magazine and was reading it during my lunch break (lol - permanent break) and came across three really good articles. I love Martha and at times I will think, "What would Martha do?"....I digress. Did you know that you can make your own vanilla extract? Easy. You just take some left over vodka and a small bottle with a tight lid and some time. Oh yes, and a vanilla bean.
3) Went to work at the Bucket and while I was in the back room I stuck two CD's in my pocket. They had been on sale, buy one get one 50% off. To my horror, the promo was over! I had those two CD's in my pocket and all thru out my shift I contemplated how simple it would be to just walk out with them! I am not a thief by nature but something about how easy it was going to be. In the end I bought only one and a candle. It was wonderful to know that I licked the wicked wolf.
4) Those Wood Wick candles were on sale. 70% off and then my 20% on top of that! So I got this cool candle for about $4. I love collecting stuff so that I can give it away later. Always a good thing to have good things on hand.
5) Received my Bollywood bangles in the mail. They are the Bomb.
6) Have lined up five vendors for the Bridal Expo and have not even mailed out the first brochure! It was my "Save the Date" cards! I rock.
7) One of the merchants is going to take the display case that is the size of hotel bathroom. It took me awhile to find someone brave enough to do it!
8) Found incredible recipes for pomegranate. One of the super foods. I am into super foods these days.
9) Made this potato/sweet potato soup the other day and while rummaging around in the ice box for something to bag up for work there it was!! Delish. I invented it. Here it is. Two potatoes, one sweet potato, one apple , a carrot and about a quarter size of ginger root and of course an onion. And a box of low sodium no fat chicken stock. About four cups. Naturally the recipe includes the steps and how to cream it all together into one fabulous pot of soup. But I won't bore y'all.
10) Was offered a free shot at this on line cooking school called Rouxbe for a couple of weeks to write a review for the Cooking Club. Cool!
11) I am on the schedule for the Bucket and got a fair amount of hours. With a bunch of needy kids it helps.
12) Have lost about five pounds in two weeks which is too slow for me, but when I think about it in another two weeks if I loose another five pounds then it will be 10! that will be great.
13) Found the "I survived AOL Journals" group on Face Book. It is fantastic to reconnect with all those blog writers from The Day. In a crazy sort of way, I think AOL led the way into the Blogosphere. Back in 2003 it was so small and AOL just exploded.
There you go, another completed 13.
Thirteen Good things that happened to me Yesterday
1) I was in Borders books the day before and saw a box of exquisite Christmas cards, exquisite to me I suppose because if they were so awesome why would they still be there marked down 75%. I hid them at the unused front check out area and when I returned the next day (yesterday) they had been moved - back to the 75% off counter! But there they were, waiting for me.
2) Received the Martha Stewert LIVING magazine and was reading it during my lunch break (lol - permanent break) and came across three really good articles. I love Martha and at times I will think, "What would Martha do?"....I digress. Did you know that you can make your own vanilla extract? Easy. You just take some left over vodka and a small bottle with a tight lid and some time. Oh yes, and a vanilla bean.
3) Went to work at the Bucket and while I was in the back room I stuck two CD's in my pocket. They had been on sale, buy one get one 50% off. To my horror, the promo was over! I had those two CD's in my pocket and all thru out my shift I contemplated how simple it would be to just walk out with them! I am not a thief by nature but something about how easy it was going to be. In the end I bought only one and a candle. It was wonderful to know that I licked the wicked wolf.
4) Those Wood Wick candles were on sale. 70% off and then my 20% on top of that! So I got this cool candle for about $4. I love collecting stuff so that I can give it away later. Always a good thing to have good things on hand.
5) Received my Bollywood bangles in the mail. They are the Bomb.
6) Have lined up five vendors for the Bridal Expo and have not even mailed out the first brochure! It was my "Save the Date" cards! I rock.
7) One of the merchants is going to take the display case that is the size of hotel bathroom. It took me awhile to find someone brave enough to do it!
8) Found incredible recipes for pomegranate. One of the super foods. I am into super foods these days.
9) Made this potato/sweet potato soup the other day and while rummaging around in the ice box for something to bag up for work there it was!! Delish. I invented it. Here it is. Two potatoes, one sweet potato, one apple , a carrot and about a quarter size of ginger root and of course an onion. And a box of low sodium no fat chicken stock. About four cups. Naturally the recipe includes the steps and how to cream it all together into one fabulous pot of soup. But I won't bore y'all.
10) Was offered a free shot at this on line cooking school called Rouxbe for a couple of weeks to write a review for the Cooking Club. Cool!
11) I am on the schedule for the Bucket and got a fair amount of hours. With a bunch of needy kids it helps.
12) Have lost about five pounds in two weeks which is too slow for me, but when I think about it in another two weeks if I loose another five pounds then it will be 10! that will be great.
13) Found the "I survived AOL Journals" group on Face Book. It is fantastic to reconnect with all those blog writers from The Day. In a crazy sort of way, I think AOL led the way into the Blogosphere. Back in 2003 it was so small and AOL just exploded.
There you go, another completed 13.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Traveling by Bus Plane & Hurricane
Sunday Scribbling
#249 - A Walk in the Park
Has anything been 'a walk in the park' for you? What does that mean? Is a walk in the park really the easiest thing we can do? Have you had a great real walk in a real park lately? Do you need me to tell you to go outside and take a walk in a park? Tell us about a walk in the park.
I have been mulling this one over in my head for days. Thinking and discarding and returning to the same train of thought and finally the surrender to just go with it.
When we touched the ground of the good old USA in St. Louis after escaping from Mexico and eight days of being held captive, stranded and seemingly forgotten by the rest of the world, we cheered wildly at the top of our lungs. We were dirty and smelly. Joe had not shaved for a week. I was sun burnt and cranky.
We had finally arrived home after our four day all inclusive trip to Cancun was interrupted by a Hurricane which added an additional four days of adventure, but not just any Hurricane, by Wilma. The strongest slowest moving category five Hurricane ever. She wiped out Cancun, deciding to stay for three days, and ruined our vacation. It took every ounce of strength and every dollar we had to get back to the US. We journeyed across a whipped Yucatan Peninsula to catch the last flight out of Madeira to the US. We were the last to leave. We turned out the lights in that airport.
We cheered wildly as the plane landed on US soil.
I thought after that, I can endure anything. Anything else after will be a WALK IN THE PARK. Try going day after day without being able to change clothes because your luggage is in a beach hotel on the seventh floor that may or may not still be standing. The beach was gone. Should we expect the hotel to have survived? But it did, and we walked up seven flight of stairs, in the pitch black, so dark you could not see your hands and I could not see Joe in front of me. But we emerged on the floor and by the grace of God, our luggage made it! Sitting in the bath tub (as instructed) even though the rest of the room was a shambles with the ocean facing wall gone.
I can endure anything after that. No rain storm, no flood, no tornado, no blizzard will ever phase me.
Well, maybe a tornado.
But once you have lived through the sound of a freight train running over you, around you, and through you as you crouch and huddle in a brick school house for an entire night while the whole city whips around you tossing iron sheets of metal, as if they were pieces of paper, trying to ram through the walls.
If you can keep from panicking, if you can keep from screaming, if you can keep from crying you'll be okay. The only sounds other than the unrelenting wind - wind is too meek a word - was the murmur of prayers.
If I can get through that, the rest of my life is a walk in the park.
Friday, January 07, 2011
THURSDAY THIRTEEN
Since I am always looking for new fodder to get my juices going and stumbled across this meme called Thursday Thirteen.. I hope it does not matter that it is Friday!
My theme: Thirteen Random Things
1) Two nights in a row I have dreamed about an old friend of mine. An old boyfriend of mine! Sometimes I can decipher the reason I dream about a certain thing or person. But this is just out of the blue. I am wondering i something is going on with him. I have not seen him in years - close to 20 years - and then I see him twice this past summer thanks to the gathering of the Animal House Reunion.
2) I miss Grace in Small Things. It became a habit to look for special things that happen throughout the day and keep track of them. It was very easy to fall out of the habit as well.
3) I like lists! This 13 is even a list of sorts. About five years ago I took this job that was very wrong for me in many ways. On the other hand it gave me tremendous structure to my day and work schedule. I realized that this is how I perform at my best! Give me a list, give me instruction, give me your expectations and I can run with it.
4) Had appetizers and several drinks (okay three of them!) with my gal pal Ms. Smarty Pants. My husband showed up and he and I bantered about our travels together and the funniest highlights of Ireland & Boston. I wonder if Ms. Smarty Pants was bored to tears. I felt my face flush with the fun of remembering the night we landed in Ennis after traveling down an Irish highway that turned into a dirt road that turned into a path that turned into a pasture and we had to turn around! When we arrived at the very outskirts of Ennis Joe parked the car and walked away. At the time I was furious and found the nearest pub! But now, years later, it is a good memory. Time is the biggest fraud of all.
5) I should be working on this Bridal thing we are having next month. This will be my second go round with it. At the moment I am sending out Postcards for "save the date". I am only targeting the good folks in C-ville as I find Nashville is uninterested in wooing business from this area. It randomly crosses my mind at times that I would have made a great Marketing Director since I grade myself as a mediocre Asst. Who is the smart aleck?
6) I really need to get out my Christmas thank you notes. I know that thank you notes are a thing of an era gone by but I still like to let people know how much I appreciate their effort. I have these cool Indian note cards. As in Asia.
7) I dragged out my jewelry making box last night to find that tool that allows me to screw around with links on chains and the such. I found I had a whole cache of stones still in plastic bags and a lot of findings. I could make at least several dozen simple earrings for this business venture I am rolling around in my head like a grain of sand in an oyster. I like that analogy.
8) I am considering upgrading my account at Amazon to something more definite. Right now I share a small amount of my profits with Amazon. If I upgrade I could sell off a lot of stuff that I won't be able to list on ESTY (once I get that site up and going).
9) I'm such a damn procrastinator! I won't be able to start my ESTY business until I get a new lens for my camera. Need close up's baby.
10) Received a copy of Southern Living that I began reading last night and now I have the hunger to go to Gulf Shores to see this concert that will be put o n May 22- 24th. Right on the way we can drop in on this book store that was listed in Birmingham AL. Seems rational to me.
11) I sent a Christmas card to my second cousin in NY who I have corresponded with for several years. He is researching our ancestry on my paternal grandmothers family! Some time ago (2003 or 04) he hooked me up with an English cousin who was living in New Orleans. I wonder what happened to her. I have to check my AOL and see it I still have her e-mail. And I want to scan in all these fabulous photo's I have of Nana - who would have been his great Aunt, as a young child at the beach in Ireland. She was a great beauty in her day. I want him to know that - to see that.
12) It is suppose to snow here in Middle Tennessee this week end. I love snow as long as it is just every once in awhile. Not like when we lived in NE Indiana and it fell on the ground in November and stayed until late March. What an ordeal for a Southern gal. I did pretty good in the snow there. Something about the land being so flat. Here and in KY - rolling hill country? Foothills of the Smokies? It's scary.
13) My diet is proving to be a pain in the butt. I have avoided my usual diet of cookies, candies, fried foods and everything that is bad for you. It seems that exercise is in order. Rats!
My theme: Thirteen Random Things
1) Two nights in a row I have dreamed about an old friend of mine. An old boyfriend of mine! Sometimes I can decipher the reason I dream about a certain thing or person. But this is just out of the blue. I am wondering i something is going on with him. I have not seen him in years - close to 20 years - and then I see him twice this past summer thanks to the gathering of the Animal House Reunion.
2) I miss Grace in Small Things. It became a habit to look for special things that happen throughout the day and keep track of them. It was very easy to fall out of the habit as well.
3) I like lists! This 13 is even a list of sorts. About five years ago I took this job that was very wrong for me in many ways. On the other hand it gave me tremendous structure to my day and work schedule. I realized that this is how I perform at my best! Give me a list, give me instruction, give me your expectations and I can run with it.
4) Had appetizers and several drinks (okay three of them!) with my gal pal Ms. Smarty Pants. My husband showed up and he and I bantered about our travels together and the funniest highlights of Ireland & Boston. I wonder if Ms. Smarty Pants was bored to tears. I felt my face flush with the fun of remembering the night we landed in Ennis after traveling down an Irish highway that turned into a dirt road that turned into a path that turned into a pasture and we had to turn around! When we arrived at the very outskirts of Ennis Joe parked the car and walked away. At the time I was furious and found the nearest pub! But now, years later, it is a good memory. Time is the biggest fraud of all.
5) I should be working on this Bridal thing we are having next month. This will be my second go round with it. At the moment I am sending out Postcards for "save the date". I am only targeting the good folks in C-ville as I find Nashville is uninterested in wooing business from this area. It randomly crosses my mind at times that I would have made a great Marketing Director since I grade myself as a mediocre Asst. Who is the smart aleck?
6) I really need to get out my Christmas thank you notes. I know that thank you notes are a thing of an era gone by but I still like to let people know how much I appreciate their effort. I have these cool Indian note cards. As in Asia.
7) I dragged out my jewelry making box last night to find that tool that allows me to screw around with links on chains and the such. I found I had a whole cache of stones still in plastic bags and a lot of findings. I could make at least several dozen simple earrings for this business venture I am rolling around in my head like a grain of sand in an oyster. I like that analogy.
8) I am considering upgrading my account at Amazon to something more definite. Right now I share a small amount of my profits with Amazon. If I upgrade I could sell off a lot of stuff that I won't be able to list on ESTY (once I get that site up and going).
9) I'm such a damn procrastinator! I won't be able to start my ESTY business until I get a new lens for my camera. Need close up's baby.
10) Received a copy of Southern Living that I began reading last night and now I have the hunger to go to Gulf Shores to see this concert that will be put o n May 22- 24th. Right on the way we can drop in on this book store that was listed in Birmingham AL. Seems rational to me.
11) I sent a Christmas card to my second cousin in NY who I have corresponded with for several years. He is researching our ancestry on my paternal grandmothers family! Some time ago (2003 or 04) he hooked me up with an English cousin who was living in New Orleans. I wonder what happened to her. I have to check my AOL and see it I still have her e-mail. And I want to scan in all these fabulous photo's I have of Nana - who would have been his great Aunt, as a young child at the beach in Ireland. She was a great beauty in her day. I want him to know that - to see that.
12) It is suppose to snow here in Middle Tennessee this week end. I love snow as long as it is just every once in awhile. Not like when we lived in NE Indiana and it fell on the ground in November and stayed until late March. What an ordeal for a Southern gal. I did pretty good in the snow there. Something about the land being so flat. Here and in KY - rolling hill country? Foothills of the Smokies? It's scary.
13) My diet is proving to be a pain in the butt. I have avoided my usual diet of cookies, candies, fried foods and everything that is bad for you. It seems that exercise is in order. Rats!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Accountability
#248 - Progress
SO?! We are two days in to 2011 - any progress yet?
So this is how it's going to be? Accountability! In two days I have already misplaced the list I made, painstakingly mind you, over a three day period last week. I only thank God I took a picture of it for the previous SS prompt and with the aid of zoom I was able to recreate it, document and file it!
I glance over it to gage how I'm doing (day five) and see that I have made a little headway but if I truly want to live out my dreams and aspirations for 2011 I will have to make a PLAN.
And so it goes that the progress is a conscious effort to make it happen, not just jot down a list of maybes. Or want to's. Or I hope.
Years ago my department met off site and had two days of brain storming on what goals we wanted for the coming year and chiseled out a road map on how to get there. And if I remember correctly, it worked! Not only did it list ways to achieve the goals, but we had alternatives in case the aim was off the mark. It was my best year for BONUS time.
I have already begun to make the road map to success for all the things I wish to accomplish for 2011. It will include a time table, because not all can be done at once! But the plans can be laid out.
I call that Progress.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Sunday Scribbling
#257 - Manifesto
I know it is a big one, but the prompt this week is: Manifesto. Looking forward into a new year, there is always talk of resolutions or themes or plans. I'd like to see if you can go a step further.For inspiration, have a look at this or this.Happy Holidays to you and yours!
I know it is a big one, but the prompt this week is: Manifesto. Looking forward into a new year, there is always talk of resolutions or themes or plans. I'd like to see if you can go a step further.For inspiration, have a look at this or this.Happy Holidays to you and yours!
I saw this a couple of days ago and fell in love with it. I enjoy the visual aspect of it. I would love to put together a collage of how I hope to live out the coming year. As I jot down my inspirations I see in my minds eye how this would look on my Moleskine if I decide to tell the story with cut out pictures,memorabilia, stickers, and things that catch my fancy and I can fit it into my manifesto
I want to continue to feel the need to expand and grow intellectually and spiritually. I want to give more of myself. I want to travel more and do all the things I love and have neglected so much the past year - photography - reading - writing - gardening - just to name a few.
Since I carry the Moleskine and pull it out daily and lay it on my desk to write out my lists, keep track of Grace in Small Things and the canvas for the occasional burst of genius it is the perfect venue to carry my visual manifesto.
I feel like I have jump started this blog and my love of spewing the written word and wish to thank the #10 Reverb for the push in the correct direction.
Guess we all need a little shove every once in a while, don't we?
December 26th #10 Reverb
Prompt: Soul food. What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul?
Crap! I can't remember what I did yesterday let alone what I ate that rocked my soul!
On one occasion in Florida my friend took me to eat at a Seafood place that served scrimp in a garlic linguine sauce. I will never forget it. Though I can not remember the name of the restaurant.
Wanted to lick the plate.
The Greek salad at this place in Tarpon Springs was inspirational. Went back a year or so later and it was not as good. But I tried to recreate that salad at home. The dressing is what made that salad totally out of this world. Paul's Shrimp House.....? I think.
There was this little Italian Restaurant in Podunk Ky that served Eggplant Parmesan that made me want to lick that plate!
My Chicken Pot Pies where out of this world. Good comfort food. I learned that if you make them in a 10 inch iron skillet they are even better!!!!!!Something about the crust that is just heavenly.
Recently I made Butternut Squash soup and it made me pause. It was delish.
Crap! I can't remember what I did yesterday let alone what I ate that rocked my soul!
On one occasion in Florida my friend took me to eat at a Seafood place that served scrimp in a garlic linguine sauce. I will never forget it. Though I can not remember the name of the restaurant.
Wanted to lick the plate.
The Greek salad at this place in Tarpon Springs was inspirational. Went back a year or so later and it was not as good. But I tried to recreate that salad at home. The dressing is what made that salad totally out of this world. Paul's Shrimp House.....? I think.
There was this little Italian Restaurant in Podunk Ky that served Eggplant Parmesan that made me want to lick that plate!
My Chicken Pot Pies where out of this world. Good comfort food. I learned that if you make them in a 10 inch iron skillet they are even better!!!!!!Something about the crust that is just heavenly.
Recently I made Butternut Squash soup and it made me pause. It was delish.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
December 25th
Prompt: Photo - a present to yourself. Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.
I am the one behind the camera not in front of it. I am always astonished at the woman I have become when I see a picture of myself. I am an older version of myself and think I remarkably resemble my Aunt Pat. Which is not a bad thing at all, but still...I'm only saying.
The picture of my Mom and myself at the Memorial Day ceremony in Nicholasville this past May was OK. I cherish pictures of myself and Mom. But I had on little make-up, if any at all and my hair was horrendous! That's all I see. Not a picture of the first born and my beloved Mom - just old fat bad hair day Mary.
Then the pictures at the Frat. reunion were no better and I looked drunk in all of them. Happy drunk.
The there was the picture of me and one of my best friends C. taken in Louisville after my BIL's surprise B-day party.
I looked extremely hung over. lol. I was!
I am the one behind the camera not in front of it. I am always astonished at the woman I have become when I see a picture of myself. I am an older version of myself and think I remarkably resemble my Aunt Pat. Which is not a bad thing at all, but still...I'm only saying.
The picture of my Mom and myself at the Memorial Day ceremony in Nicholasville this past May was OK. I cherish pictures of myself and Mom. But I had on little make-up, if any at all and my hair was horrendous! That's all I see. Not a picture of the first born and my beloved Mom - just old fat bad hair day Mary.
Then the pictures at the Frat. reunion were no better and I looked drunk in all of them. Happy drunk.
The there was the picture of me and one of my best friends C. taken in Louisville after my BIL's surprise B-day party.
I looked extremely hung over. lol. I was!
But this one, the first time I had seen any of them in over 30 years, this was a great time and a pretty good of me. I don't look drunk or hungover.
I am the one always behind the camera.
I am the one always behind the camera.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
December 23
Prompt: New name. Let's meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why?
I have known many people who have changed their names somewhere along the line.
Kitty became Kathy.
Martha became Elaine.
Cookie became Linda.
Howie became Howard.
John became Jack.
Brenda became Kay.
Leroy became Clifford. He was Clifford to begin with, became Leroy and when returned to the real world became Clifford again.
I have written about being named Mary. A Rose by any other name. When attending catholic High School in the 1960's if one yelled out "MARY!!!" in the hall way half the girls would turn their heads! Great Balls of fire there certainly were a bunch of us!
I have been "Mary Mary" at one time and most recently May May to my grand kids. I like May May and sometimes when I enter the house I announce myself like this
"MAY MAY'S HOME!!!"
I often wondered why I didn't have some fabulous Irish name like Fiona or Caitlin but my Mother wanted me to grow up to become a nun so she saddled me with the name in the hopes that I would take the hint. Never did.
I'm just a Rose.
I have known many people who have changed their names somewhere along the line.
Kitty became Kathy.
Martha became Elaine.
Cookie became Linda.
Howie became Howard.
John became Jack.
Brenda became Kay.
Leroy became Clifford. He was Clifford to begin with, became Leroy and when returned to the real world became Clifford again.
I have written about being named Mary. A Rose by any other name. When attending catholic High School in the 1960's if one yelled out "MARY!!!" in the hall way half the girls would turn their heads! Great Balls of fire there certainly were a bunch of us!
I have been "Mary Mary" at one time and most recently May May to my grand kids. I like May May and sometimes when I enter the house I announce myself like this
"MAY MAY'S HOME!!!"
I often wondered why I didn't have some fabulous Irish name like Fiona or Caitlin but my Mother wanted me to grow up to become a nun so she saddled me with the name in the hopes that I would take the hint. Never did.
I'm just a Rose.
#10 Reverb December 22nd
Prompt: Travel. How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?
The only travel I got under my belt this year was racing up and down I-65 to get to Louisville or racing down I-65 and cutting over to Bluegrass Parkway to get to Lexington. I traveled at the speed of light at times and at other times it was like molasses in January.
Several times I had to pray to make it to a rest stop to get out jog around, slap water in my face, do deep knee bends and jumping jacks to get the blood going and keep me awake.
Then I discovered the marvelous five hour energy shot.
I did not get a chance to travel travel anywhere exotic. Except Memphis. Is Memphis really exotic? Nope, but funky fun.
We are hoping to take a cruise next year. It's been too long.
The only travel I got under my belt this year was racing up and down I-65 to get to Louisville or racing down I-65 and cutting over to Bluegrass Parkway to get to Lexington. I traveled at the speed of light at times and at other times it was like molasses in January.
Several times I had to pray to make it to a rest stop to get out jog around, slap water in my face, do deep knee bends and jumping jacks to get the blood going and keep me awake.
Then I discovered the marvelous five hour energy shot.
I did not get a chance to travel travel anywhere exotic. Except Memphis. Is Memphis really exotic? Nope, but funky fun.
We are hoping to take a cruise next year. It's been too long.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
December 21 Reverb Prompt
Prompt: Future self. Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?)
Save a lot of money.
Note to self 10 years ago - save a lot of money and cut up your credit cards and back away from that time share!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Reverb for December 20
December 20 – Beyond Avoidance. What should you have done this year but didn’t because you were too scared, worried, unsure, busy or otherwise deterred from doing? (Bonus: Will you do it?) (Author: Jake Nickell)
Some of these challenges are so thought provoking! I wish I had remembered to consider this all day long. The first thought was I should have reworked my resume the moment I took this job at the Mall and parlayed it into something better. Something that pays better so I wouldn't feel it necessary to work two jobs to "make ends meet".
And I didn't.
When and if we pack up and move further south, which is becoming a bigger possibility, I will be forced to do it. No more putting it off, or halfheartedly revising the increasingly alarming work history! Trying to decide which direction to go! I'm all over the map now and need to find some concise way to bring it all together.
I have had a lot of challenges this year to develop and execute several Mall events. I think I did a bang up job with the Senior Fair. The fashion show was fabulous. Trying to alter how people view "Seniors" was the biggest hurdle to sail over. I find that when you say Senior people think "Old Nursing Home". I threw down the gauntlet not only to convince the staff at the Mall,but when I solicited vendors for the event.
Everything from estate planning to good shoes! From financial and living wills to Medicare and Health Insurance. From vacations to funeral homes. (lol)
I managed to pull it off in a city where the medium age is somewhere in the late 20's thanks to it being a Military and college town.
The Baby expo was much easier.
I am not all that happy sitting in an office all day. I'm the Hippie Gypsy! I like touching base in the morning and then taking off in a company car and being paid to sight see all day.
The resume. I should start working on it tomorrow.
Some of these challenges are so thought provoking! I wish I had remembered to consider this all day long. The first thought was I should have reworked my resume the moment I took this job at the Mall and parlayed it into something better. Something that pays better so I wouldn't feel it necessary to work two jobs to "make ends meet".
And I didn't.
When and if we pack up and move further south, which is becoming a bigger possibility, I will be forced to do it. No more putting it off, or halfheartedly revising the increasingly alarming work history! Trying to decide which direction to go! I'm all over the map now and need to find some concise way to bring it all together.
I have had a lot of challenges this year to develop and execute several Mall events. I think I did a bang up job with the Senior Fair. The fashion show was fabulous. Trying to alter how people view "Seniors" was the biggest hurdle to sail over. I find that when you say Senior people think "Old Nursing Home". I threw down the gauntlet not only to convince the staff at the Mall,but when I solicited vendors for the event.
Everything from estate planning to good shoes! From financial and living wills to Medicare and Health Insurance. From vacations to funeral homes. (lol)
I managed to pull it off in a city where the medium age is somewhere in the late 20's thanks to it being a Military and college town.
The Baby expo was much easier.
I am not all that happy sitting in an office all day. I'm the Hippie Gypsy! I like touching base in the morning and then taking off in a company car and being paid to sight see all day.
The resume. I should start working on it tomorrow.
Monday, December 20, 2010
December 19th
Prompt: Healing. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?
The inference of this prompt is that I in someway need to be healed. I suppose this is typical of our society today that everyone in someway needs to be healed.
I guess that I could lament the death of my Dad nearing three years (how is that possible?). But death is a part of life and one does not need to be healed as much as to accept that which is inevitable.
And the loss of my beautiful Three Legged Cat. It is rough to daily drive by the spot where Joe found him. I miss him enormously but I don't think I need to be healed. I think the presence of Blackie, the abandoned kitty who showed up on our door step last January, made the loss easier. We still had him and I did not find it necessary to run out and rescue a kitten from the pound. Now Blackie is Top Cat. For some crazy reasons it seems that he has taken on some of TLC quirkiness such as laying on whatever it is I have laid out on the bed, be it book or tray of jewelry. Thank God he has not taken to eating through the plastic wrap on the bread or falling between the dryer and the wall and cry to be rescued. Tough to get out of a tight spot like that when you are a Three Legged Cat.
I am just lucky that nothing drastic or dramatic that would have caused mental anguish requiring a healing period. Living in a Military town I read in the paper daily the acts of extreme heroism that takes place by our brave men in Iraq. There is a tremendous amount of sorrow in this town. The 101st has suffered the loss of over 100 troops since deploying earlier this year.
Not a very positive note to end this post.
The inference of this prompt is that I in someway need to be healed. I suppose this is typical of our society today that everyone in someway needs to be healed.
I guess that I could lament the death of my Dad nearing three years (how is that possible?). But death is a part of life and one does not need to be healed as much as to accept that which is inevitable.
And the loss of my beautiful Three Legged Cat. It is rough to daily drive by the spot where Joe found him. I miss him enormously but I don't think I need to be healed. I think the presence of Blackie, the abandoned kitty who showed up on our door step last January, made the loss easier. We still had him and I did not find it necessary to run out and rescue a kitten from the pound. Now Blackie is Top Cat. For some crazy reasons it seems that he has taken on some of TLC quirkiness such as laying on whatever it is I have laid out on the bed, be it book or tray of jewelry. Thank God he has not taken to eating through the plastic wrap on the bread or falling between the dryer and the wall and cry to be rescued. Tough to get out of a tight spot like that when you are a Three Legged Cat.
I am just lucky that nothing drastic or dramatic that would have caused mental anguish requiring a healing period. Living in a Military town I read in the paper daily the acts of extreme heroism that takes place by our brave men in Iraq. There is a tremendous amount of sorrow in this town. The 101st has suffered the loss of over 100 troops since deploying earlier this year.
Not a very positive note to end this post.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
#10 Reverb - December 18th
Prompt: Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn't go for it?
Next year I want to make another go at the Stella & Dot business. I claim to be the Queen of Excuses and sometimes when I read what other women accomplish while taking on a Home Based Business (full time jobs, graduate school etc. etc. etc.) I feel like a wimp.
One Sunday I had made arrangements to participate in a small Holiday Show. I am never scheduled to go into the Bucket on a Sunday afternoon. I am the closer. It is always 5 or 6 pm until close. I was astonished when the schedule was posted and I had the 3pm - 8pm shift. I fretted for days and on Sunday I called the Bucket and told them I was going to be late.
The show overlapped an hour and I need at least 1/2 hour to close up and change clothes. I was rushing around packing up the Cake Pops I had made as a refreshment, arranging all the jewelry in such a manner that I could unpack and have my display ready to go in minutes. I had my black table cloth and six foot collapsible utility table I had shelled out $45 for at Lowes laying at the door at ready for packing to the car.
Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks. There was just no way I could do this. I did not want to do this.
So I called in the 11th hour and cancelled and headed into the Bucket.
I would like to have more control over my life next year and the ability to go to trade shows and have in home truck shows. I want to work on strong arming (lol) people into having shows. I want to figure out how to make them want to have trunk shows.
Hey everybody! Check this out!! Stella and Dot Opportunity!
Next year I want to make another go at the Stella & Dot business. I claim to be the Queen of Excuses and sometimes when I read what other women accomplish while taking on a Home Based Business (full time jobs, graduate school etc. etc. etc.) I feel like a wimp.
One Sunday I had made arrangements to participate in a small Holiday Show. I am never scheduled to go into the Bucket on a Sunday afternoon. I am the closer. It is always 5 or 6 pm until close. I was astonished when the schedule was posted and I had the 3pm - 8pm shift. I fretted for days and on Sunday I called the Bucket and told them I was going to be late.
The show overlapped an hour and I need at least 1/2 hour to close up and change clothes. I was rushing around packing up the Cake Pops I had made as a refreshment, arranging all the jewelry in such a manner that I could unpack and have my display ready to go in minutes. I had my black table cloth and six foot collapsible utility table I had shelled out $45 for at Lowes laying at the door at ready for packing to the car.
Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks. There was just no way I could do this. I did not want to do this.
So I called in the 11th hour and cancelled and headed into the Bucket.
I would like to have more control over my life next year and the ability to go to trade shows and have in home truck shows. I want to work on strong arming (lol) people into having shows. I want to figure out how to make them want to have trunk shows.
Hey everybody! Check this out!! Stella and Dot Opportunity!
Friday, December 17, 2010
#10 Reverb - December 17th
December 17 – Lesson Learned What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward? (Author: Tara Weaver)
I am fairly impervious to certain things. And self reflection is quite close to the top of the list. The challenges become very difficult when I turn the spot light towards myself. If I learn something about myself, it probably startles me for a moment and then heads on down the mighty Mississippi of my being emptying out to the Ocean of Forgotten Revelations.
I could turn it around and ask "What surprised you about yourself?" and I would answer that first and foremost working these long hours week after week, going 30+ days without any breaks from one job or the other and I am really not that tired! It does surprise me. Just think, I say to myself, if I were in shape!?! And had a healthy diet! If I quit eating all this candy and waking up in the morning thinking, "why do I fell so yucky?" and then I answer, "what did you eat? that's it! too much sugar and carbs!"
The fact that I committed to doing Grace in Small Things for a year and by-Golly I did it for a year! Sometimes I may have had to play catch up, but I did it. I knew I have a decent amount of sticktoitiveness yet this was surprising. I am also the Queen of Great Excuses.
Another thing that surprises me is how I have taken to listening to these self help tapes. And I am learning behavior modification techniques. I am even applying them! I am finding that the most important trick is be aware of what is going on in your mind (irony, due to today's prompt and my resistance) and processing your feelings giving you the opportunity to THINK before you give in to your impulses.
I am a creature of habits and rituals. I need some new habits. I need some new rituals.
That is what I take into 2011. The desire to continue with this behavioral awareness.
I am fairly impervious to certain things. And self reflection is quite close to the top of the list. The challenges become very difficult when I turn the spot light towards myself. If I learn something about myself, it probably startles me for a moment and then heads on down the mighty Mississippi of my being emptying out to the Ocean of Forgotten Revelations.
I could turn it around and ask "What surprised you about yourself?" and I would answer that first and foremost working these long hours week after week, going 30+ days without any breaks from one job or the other and I am really not that tired! It does surprise me. Just think, I say to myself, if I were in shape!?! And had a healthy diet! If I quit eating all this candy and waking up in the morning thinking, "why do I fell so yucky?" and then I answer, "what did you eat? that's it! too much sugar and carbs!"
The fact that I committed to doing Grace in Small Things for a year and by-Golly I did it for a year! Sometimes I may have had to play catch up, but I did it. I knew I have a decent amount of sticktoitiveness yet this was surprising. I am also the Queen of Great Excuses.
Another thing that surprises me is how I have taken to listening to these self help tapes. And I am learning behavior modification techniques. I am even applying them! I am finding that the most important trick is be aware of what is going on in your mind (irony, due to today's prompt and my resistance) and processing your feelings giving you the opportunity to THINK before you give in to your impulses.
I am a creature of habits and rituals. I need some new habits. I need some new rituals.
That is what I take into 2011. The desire to continue with this behavioral awareness.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Reverb December 16th
December 16 – Friendship How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst? (Author: Martha Mihalick)
I flip the pages in my address book inscribing each envelope carefully. I write a quick note in each card, place it in the envelope taking care not to smear the ink, place a stamp especially for the holidays in the right corner, another label with my current address in the other corner and place the Christmas Card in the growing stack to be mailed. My list of friends include those I met in Cancun during the hurricane, the frat boys, friends from my childhood street, friends from my grammar school days, in-laws, friends from High School, friends I have known all my life, friends of my parents, cousins, friends from various places I have worked, friends from college days. Even some friends from AOL-J land and beyond.
Sometime during my life passage they have touched me and we bonded in such a way to ensure their inclusion on these pages of my tattered address book. I fill out a card, write some short lines about how I hope they are enjoying the holidays, how much I miss them, suggest we get together somehow, somewhere and then close the card with thoughts of them dancing in my head.
Each person conjures up a face and an emotion. A memory. Some of them are painful such as why do I never hear from this person? I send them cards, am friends with them on Face book, yet I never hear from them. It saddens me, yet I know that they will remain in my sphere of Christmas card sending and maybe a card or note or two during the year.
And so it goes. My life long connection to people who become more than just an acquaintance and stay with me - well, maybe forever!
As for one single friend who touched me in a way that altered some perspective or understanding - I'm blank. I just know that people are busy - heck, I'm busy and that life is nothing if you do not have people to share the joys of living, the hardships of enduring, and the monotony that sometimes is handed to us. It's nice to share.
I did find out, in a collective way, people change but somehow remain the same.
I flip the pages in my address book inscribing each envelope carefully. I write a quick note in each card, place it in the envelope taking care not to smear the ink, place a stamp especially for the holidays in the right corner, another label with my current address in the other corner and place the Christmas Card in the growing stack to be mailed. My list of friends include those I met in Cancun during the hurricane, the frat boys, friends from my childhood street, friends from my grammar school days, in-laws, friends from High School, friends I have known all my life, friends of my parents, cousins, friends from various places I have worked, friends from college days. Even some friends from AOL-J land and beyond.
Sometime during my life passage they have touched me and we bonded in such a way to ensure their inclusion on these pages of my tattered address book. I fill out a card, write some short lines about how I hope they are enjoying the holidays, how much I miss them, suggest we get together somehow, somewhere and then close the card with thoughts of them dancing in my head.
Each person conjures up a face and an emotion. A memory. Some of them are painful such as why do I never hear from this person? I send them cards, am friends with them on Face book, yet I never hear from them. It saddens me, yet I know that they will remain in my sphere of Christmas card sending and maybe a card or note or two during the year.
And so it goes. My life long connection to people who become more than just an acquaintance and stay with me - well, maybe forever!
As for one single friend who touched me in a way that altered some perspective or understanding - I'm blank. I just know that people are busy - heck, I'm busy and that life is nothing if you do not have people to share the joys of living, the hardships of enduring, and the monotony that sometimes is handed to us. It's nice to share.
I did find out, in a collective way, people change but somehow remain the same.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
REVERB - December 15th
December 15 – 5 Minutes
Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.
Gathering at the Lake House in East Tennessee with family and some close friends and one California cousin
Memorial Day in Central Kentucky - had a marvelous week-end with the Grand kids. My step-son cooked for us and we had a spectacular time!
The Fraternity brothers reunion in West Kentucky where I reunited with about 40 of my salad days, pot smoking, beer over the border, skipping classes, 25 cent beer out of the Coke machine, spade playing, Hairy Buffalo partying wild and crazy guys from my college days.
Going to the re-union party for the High School I never went to but lived in the county but my parents forced me to go to Catholic High School in the next city! So I was allowed to go because I knew practically everyone in that age range.
Plus my best friend coming up from Florida for the event. It had been about a little over a year since I had seen her. And seeing my old running buddy, G. Great party. Over too soon.
Hay ride party and seeing my other Florida best buddy who flew up for the event. That was a blast too.
Getting the cat off the roof next door twice. Not the Three Legged Cat but Blackie, who showed up on our door step last January during a hard freeze. We made a little house for him with a blanket and fed him and before you knew it he was in the house! Three Legged Cat did not like it one bit and never acknowledged Blackie. Ignored him the way only a cat can accomplish. Blackie continually would climb on the neighbors roof,usually before dawn, and then cry for help! Joe and I would have to combine forces to get him off without waking the neighbors and getting ourselves shot. Blackie never ventures out now. Once inside, he is in "No Way" ever setting foot out again. He should live to be a ripe old age.
The priest, Father Dan coming into my Mothers ICU room and giving her the blessing of the sick and then laying hands on her. Faith and the power of God can accomplish miracles.
I found that lost purple earring just like I knew I would six months later when I moved from the front reception area to my own little office. I had faith that earring would show itself and it did. Once again, the power of faith.
Working two jobs and thoroughly enjoying any limited or minor time off I have.
The feeling of accomplishment putting together the Senior Fair and the Baby Expo.
Driving back to Louisville during this past summer and the beauty of the city at night with the spot lights on the church steeples. Simply breathtaking. Bardstown Rd. is so vibrant even late into the evening. A grand welcome home.
How ironic it is that I, who can not stand Malls, end up working in one.
The highs of having that Three Legged Cat for the past two years and how much we loved him.
The thrill of paying off the motorcycle and my Sonota.
My cousin E. and her husband Bill coming to visit my Mom and bringing Auntie M for a short week end visit. More than three days and the sisters are at odds.
Visiting Memphis around the 4th of July. I enjoy Memphis, the shopping, the great book store at the library, the fabulous Goodwill in Olive Branch area, and Beale Street. Oh Mama! What fun that was.
Discovering self help CD's while driving! They are the bomb.
And so ends five minutes.
Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.
Gathering at the Lake House in East Tennessee with family and some close friends and one California cousin
Memorial Day in Central Kentucky - had a marvelous week-end with the Grand kids. My step-son cooked for us and we had a spectacular time!
The Fraternity brothers reunion in West Kentucky where I reunited with about 40 of my salad days, pot smoking, beer over the border, skipping classes, 25 cent beer out of the Coke machine, spade playing, Hairy Buffalo partying wild and crazy guys from my college days.
Going to the re-union party for the High School I never went to but lived in the county but my parents forced me to go to Catholic High School in the next city! So I was allowed to go because I knew practically everyone in that age range.
Plus my best friend coming up from Florida for the event. It had been about a little over a year since I had seen her. And seeing my old running buddy, G. Great party. Over too soon.
Hay ride party and seeing my other Florida best buddy who flew up for the event. That was a blast too.
Getting the cat off the roof next door twice. Not the Three Legged Cat but Blackie, who showed up on our door step last January during a hard freeze. We made a little house for him with a blanket and fed him and before you knew it he was in the house! Three Legged Cat did not like it one bit and never acknowledged Blackie. Ignored him the way only a cat can accomplish. Blackie continually would climb on the neighbors roof,usually before dawn, and then cry for help! Joe and I would have to combine forces to get him off without waking the neighbors and getting ourselves shot. Blackie never ventures out now. Once inside, he is in "No Way" ever setting foot out again. He should live to be a ripe old age.
The priest, Father Dan coming into my Mothers ICU room and giving her the blessing of the sick and then laying hands on her. Faith and the power of God can accomplish miracles.
I found that lost purple earring just like I knew I would six months later when I moved from the front reception area to my own little office. I had faith that earring would show itself and it did. Once again, the power of faith.
Working two jobs and thoroughly enjoying any limited or minor time off I have.
The feeling of accomplishment putting together the Senior Fair and the Baby Expo.
Driving back to Louisville during this past summer and the beauty of the city at night with the spot lights on the church steeples. Simply breathtaking. Bardstown Rd. is so vibrant even late into the evening. A grand welcome home.
How ironic it is that I, who can not stand Malls, end up working in one.
The highs of having that Three Legged Cat for the past two years and how much we loved him.
The thrill of paying off the motorcycle and my Sonota.
My cousin E. and her husband Bill coming to visit my Mom and bringing Auntie M for a short week end visit. More than three days and the sisters are at odds.
Visiting Memphis around the 4th of July. I enjoy Memphis, the shopping, the great book store at the library, the fabulous Goodwill in Olive Branch area, and Beale Street. Oh Mama! What fun that was.
Discovering self help CD's while driving! They are the bomb.
And so ends five minutes.
Reverb December 14
Prompt: Appreciate. What's the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?
This is more like it!!
To narrow it down to just one thing I have come to appreciate is very difficult. I have come to realize how imperative it is to have a good Dr. Scholl inserts in your shoes. You can accomplish anything, solve enormous problems, defy great odds when you are not thinking that your feet hurt! Inserts could be called miracles - but I can not think of a way to express my gratitude of this marvelous invention except send money directly to Dr. Scholl, but I think he has enough.
Everyday I realize how much I appreciate my husband Joe and that I am guilty of taking him for granted and I should be horse whipped for that! When our Three Legged Cat went missing, it was not that unusual. Many times he would take off for parts unknown and we thought he had another family on the side. I don't know why this time it felt different. And Joe went looking for him and found him. I can't express the appreciation I have for him doing that for me, for us. And Joe took care of it.
It has become a combination of little things that when added together make me realize that I am very blessed to have him in my life.
Yesterday I told him how much lucky I am to have him.
"I know I know" he said in understanding way that is the tag line to a real life joke of his from his youth when he was sliding into home plate and was called out! Crying on the way to the dug out he told his coach, who was walking him back with his arm around him, that he was SAFE!! "I know I know, Son" he said in a sympathetic tone that totally contrasted the way he was shoved into the dug out.
I realize that small gestures mean everything. A handful of German Roaster Peanuts (yummy) or a four pack of his favorite $10.00 beer, (can you say Bourbon Barrel), or just running that silly head massager thingy through his hair without being asked. All these things are an expression of my love and my gratefulness that we are together for this crazy ride.
I could do more. I just need to ask myself some questions such as,"What would shock him and make him so happy!"
It just came to me! Stay tuned
This is more like it!!
To narrow it down to just one thing I have come to appreciate is very difficult. I have come to realize how imperative it is to have a good Dr. Scholl inserts in your shoes. You can accomplish anything, solve enormous problems, defy great odds when you are not thinking that your feet hurt! Inserts could be called miracles - but I can not think of a way to express my gratitude of this marvelous invention except send money directly to Dr. Scholl, but I think he has enough.
Everyday I realize how much I appreciate my husband Joe and that I am guilty of taking him for granted and I should be horse whipped for that! When our Three Legged Cat went missing, it was not that unusual. Many times he would take off for parts unknown and we thought he had another family on the side. I don't know why this time it felt different. And Joe went looking for him and found him. I can't express the appreciation I have for him doing that for me, for us. And Joe took care of it.
It has become a combination of little things that when added together make me realize that I am very blessed to have him in my life.
Yesterday I told him how much lucky I am to have him.
"I know I know" he said in understanding way that is the tag line to a real life joke of his from his youth when he was sliding into home plate and was called out! Crying on the way to the dug out he told his coach, who was walking him back with his arm around him, that he was SAFE!! "I know I know, Son" he said in a sympathetic tone that totally contrasted the way he was shoved into the dug out.
I realize that small gestures mean everything. A handful of German Roaster Peanuts (yummy) or a four pack of his favorite $10.00 beer, (can you say Bourbon Barrel), or just running that silly head massager thingy through his hair without being asked. All these things are an expression of my love and my gratefulness that we are together for this crazy ride.
I could do more. I just need to ask myself some questions such as,"What would shock him and make him so happy!"
It just came to me! Stay tuned
Reverb Dec 13th
Prompt: Action. When it comes to aspirations, its not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen. What's your next step?
I have not been very inspired by the past two prompts so I have been dragging my feet about posting my thoughts. When I think of the word "aspiration" I think it in terms of dreams verses ideas. I would substitute the word "inspiration" for aspiration and the question would click for me. But, I'll work with what I got, haven't I bragged that I can roll?
One of the prompts had me map a couple of things out, changes that I would like to make in 2011 and one of them was to stop thinking about visiting nursing homes/assisted living facilities and just do it! I have this little grain of sand in my brain that I have been rolling over and over in the hopes of producing a pearl one day.
What holds me back is that I feel I need a tape recorder. Do they make them any longer? Or is it all digital? A little while ago I checked out a book about short hand and thought maybe I could pick up enough that I could utilize it while interviewing. But man, that stuff is tough! And I think I picked up an instruction manual verses a Shorthand for Dummies. I learned nothing. Except that squiggles have nuances you can not fathom!
The opportunity to gain entry to these homes is overwhelming! The daughter of a man I work with is the activity director at a home in the town here. When I worked so hard on my Senior Fair/Expo I was introduced to a lot of fantastic caregivers who would lend a hand in selecting the type of people to talk to and record what they have to say. And photograph. I have this vision in my head of these beautiful black and white portraits I will take while they talk about the people they love then and now.
So, nothing is holding me back except me. I would like to define who and why before I begin. Ideas collide in my brain making that pearl.
My next step should be to just take that first step. “The first step binds one to the second. ” Some old French guy was pretty smart (See, old guy!!)
I have not been very inspired by the past two prompts so I have been dragging my feet about posting my thoughts. When I think of the word "aspiration" I think it in terms of dreams verses ideas. I would substitute the word "inspiration" for aspiration and the question would click for me. But, I'll work with what I got, haven't I bragged that I can roll?
One of the prompts had me map a couple of things out, changes that I would like to make in 2011 and one of them was to stop thinking about visiting nursing homes/assisted living facilities and just do it! I have this little grain of sand in my brain that I have been rolling over and over in the hopes of producing a pearl one day.
What holds me back is that I feel I need a tape recorder. Do they make them any longer? Or is it all digital? A little while ago I checked out a book about short hand and thought maybe I could pick up enough that I could utilize it while interviewing. But man, that stuff is tough! And I think I picked up an instruction manual verses a Shorthand for Dummies. I learned nothing. Except that squiggles have nuances you can not fathom!
The opportunity to gain entry to these homes is overwhelming! The daughter of a man I work with is the activity director at a home in the town here. When I worked so hard on my Senior Fair/Expo I was introduced to a lot of fantastic caregivers who would lend a hand in selecting the type of people to talk to and record what they have to say. And photograph. I have this vision in my head of these beautiful black and white portraits I will take while they talk about the people they love then and now.
So, nothing is holding me back except me. I would like to define who and why before I begin. Ideas collide in my brain making that pearl.
My next step should be to just take that first step. “The first step binds one to the second. ” Some old French guy was pretty smart (See, old guy!!)
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Reverb for Dec 12th
Prompt: Body integration. This year, when did you feel the most integrated with your body? Did you have a moment where there wasn't mind and body, but simply a cohesive YOU, alive and present?
NO.
Unless you count the numerous times I have almost been hit at the four way stop or when someone miscalculates my speed and pulls out in front of me requiring me to slam on the brakes! Then my mind and body are one at that moment. I do have good reflexes and if something begins to fall I can go for it before my mind tells me "Your eggnog is taking a dive!".
But I believe he was asking about it in an athletic way (take a look at his picture. Who has their publicity shots taken sans shirt unless you are an athlete?) and is trying to see if anyone runs marathons. Heck, the 10 miler will do that to you! Or swimming. Yoga. Sometimes when I would participate in Step Classes I thought I would loose my mind.
Simply put - no. Maybe next year.
NO.
Unless you count the numerous times I have almost been hit at the four way stop or when someone miscalculates my speed and pulls out in front of me requiring me to slam on the brakes! Then my mind and body are one at that moment. I do have good reflexes and if something begins to fall I can go for it before my mind tells me "Your eggnog is taking a dive!".
But I believe he was asking about it in an athletic way (take a look at his picture. Who has their publicity shots taken sans shirt unless you are an athlete?) and is trying to see if anyone runs marathons. Heck, the 10 miler will do that to you! Or swimming. Yoga. Sometimes when I would participate in Step Classes I thought I would loose my mind.
Simply put - no. Maybe next year.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Ode to a Blue Russian
My headlights sweep across the entrance to the small subdivision we call home bouncing off the large concrete and brick sign and shimmering on the slick blacktop. A shadow among the shadows moves in an easy lope to the edge of our drive way and as I open the car door he sits to welcome me home. "Hello pretty kitty" I greet him and always I run my hand down his luxurious mane of blue gray hair. My three legged wonder scrambles ahead of me in that goofy walk of his caused by the absence of a back leg. He saunters down the drive way and avoids the grass.
Opening the door is always a challenge as he refuses to believe the primary physics law that two objects can not reside in the same place.
He enters the house and lays on the hip of his missing leg side and claws at the scratch tree, as if wiping his feet upon entry. Then its a mad dash to the food bowl to see if he has missed anything. Same old stuff, but he eats like he has not had a decent meal in a week. Afterwards he likes to stretch out with his legs high above his head and the bottom half of his body with only one leg arches his back to complete this ballet like pose. He looks to one side to ensure I am watching. I always stoke his soft arched back and tell him how gorgeous he is.
He follows me from room to room plunking his girth outside each door, laying on his side.
How many different sounds can this marvel make? Well, there is the "Let me out of the house " wail.
There is the low growl when he does not want to be screwed around with.
Every time Joe picks him up he lets out this long "Meoooooooowwwwwwww" that ends with a "EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK" at the end. Hilarious.
When he is laying around thinking little cat thoughts in this big cat head and you lay a hand on him to pet him he says, "ERRRRRRRRRRRR".
There are probably several more, like when he goes around and around your legs when you are fixing dinner asking, "what's for a cat" with another type of high pitched "meow".
He loves to poke his head in the door of the refrigerator when you open the door and at times he would crawl in to get a better look (is that chicken I spot in the corner?) and has to be nudged away. He squawks in disappointment.
At 4am he always wants out and climbs on the book shelf. If you don't respond by getting up and letting him out, he will begin to knock things to the floor to get your attention.
For some crazy reason, he would go into the bathroom attached to the bedroom and make some crazy agonizing moans, as if he heard birds on the other side of the wall and he needed out right away.
I love this cat. This cat who had extra life added when my daughter called me begging and crying for help to save him when he hurt his back leg. I did and felt like I owned a piece of this Blue Russian gluttonous bird hunting fat cat.
And that is why it has taken me a day to stop crying that his well fed and demonstrative lovable fur ball met an untimely death yesterday. How is it possible to become so attached to a cat? my husband asks me through his tears.
He was a great cat. He certainly lived his nine lives with gusto.
Opening the door is always a challenge as he refuses to believe the primary physics law that two objects can not reside in the same place.
He enters the house and lays on the hip of his missing leg side and claws at the scratch tree, as if wiping his feet upon entry. Then its a mad dash to the food bowl to see if he has missed anything. Same old stuff, but he eats like he has not had a decent meal in a week. Afterwards he likes to stretch out with his legs high above his head and the bottom half of his body with only one leg arches his back to complete this ballet like pose. He looks to one side to ensure I am watching. I always stoke his soft arched back and tell him how gorgeous he is.
He follows me from room to room plunking his girth outside each door, laying on his side.
How many different sounds can this marvel make? Well, there is the "Let me out of the house " wail.
There is the low growl when he does not want to be screwed around with.
Every time Joe picks him up he lets out this long "Meoooooooowwwwwwww" that ends with a "EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK" at the end. Hilarious.
When he is laying around thinking little cat thoughts in this big cat head and you lay a hand on him to pet him he says, "ERRRRRRRRRRRR".
There are probably several more, like when he goes around and around your legs when you are fixing dinner asking, "what's for a cat" with another type of high pitched "meow".
He loves to poke his head in the door of the refrigerator when you open the door and at times he would crawl in to get a better look (is that chicken I spot in the corner?) and has to be nudged away. He squawks in disappointment.
At 4am he always wants out and climbs on the book shelf. If you don't respond by getting up and letting him out, he will begin to knock things to the floor to get your attention.
For some crazy reason, he would go into the bathroom attached to the bedroom and make some crazy agonizing moans, as if he heard birds on the other side of the wall and he needed out right away.
I love this cat. This cat who had extra life added when my daughter called me begging and crying for help to save him when he hurt his back leg. I did and felt like I owned a piece of this Blue Russian gluttonous bird hunting fat cat.
And that is why it has taken me a day to stop crying that his well fed and demonstrative lovable fur ball met an untimely death yesterday. How is it possible to become so attached to a cat? my husband asks me through his tears.
He was a great cat. He certainly lived his nine lives with gusto.
Reverb for December 11
Prompt: 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn't need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?
Not in any particular order
1) The excess 25 pounds I have packed on in the last 5 years. 2011 does not need me courting a heart attack. I could go to the gym, I could watch what I eat. I could take up walking with the aspirations of turning it into running again. I could swim, I could make it a goal to get ready for the triple crown of running in Louisville as part of the Derby Festival. Whoa, that begins with a 5K in March! I better start hitting the pavement and buy some good running shoes - lol. I mean, this is what I would like to do. What will I do?
2) I have a lot of stuff. And that stuff is stuffed into a tiny house. I have a lot of books. I'm not certain how many there are packed in all those boxes in the garage, but it's a lot. Probably close to 1000 - 1500. I have some great titles, some first editions and a lot of variety. My travel section is superb. I would love to sell them just so I do not have to pack them around another couple of times. Maybe I'll get serious and do Craigslist and offer them in lots based on subject matter. Now that's a project!
3) I don't need this obscene debt I have managed to strangle myself with. This year I have done a great job of paying several loans off but there is a whole lot left to get rid of. It is impossible to think it could be done in one year unless I hit the lottery. But, I hope to continue to focus on getting Joe and me debt free before we "retire" (he will, there is no way I can) with only the house mortgage to knock off.
4) This one is way too personal to post on this blog - but I am trying to alter my behavior in the hopes of altering someone else.
5) Another way too personal and would absolutely kill someone if I even hinted that this is something I do not need and consider it a drag on my existence. People have all sorts of reasons to justify their behavior/addictions/personality traits.
6) I am not one to dwell on negative things. There is no way in hell I can come up with 11 things I do not need in 2011 and am willing to change. There are many things I would like to change about myself - I'm a procrastinator for one. I try on a daily basis to not let it screw things up. I rely too much on my being smart and fast.
Not in any particular order
1) The excess 25 pounds I have packed on in the last 5 years. 2011 does not need me courting a heart attack. I could go to the gym, I could watch what I eat. I could take up walking with the aspirations of turning it into running again. I could swim, I could make it a goal to get ready for the triple crown of running in Louisville as part of the Derby Festival. Whoa, that begins with a 5K in March! I better start hitting the pavement and buy some good running shoes - lol. I mean, this is what I would like to do. What will I do?
2) I have a lot of stuff. And that stuff is stuffed into a tiny house. I have a lot of books. I'm not certain how many there are packed in all those boxes in the garage, but it's a lot. Probably close to 1000 - 1500. I have some great titles, some first editions and a lot of variety. My travel section is superb. I would love to sell them just so I do not have to pack them around another couple of times. Maybe I'll get serious and do Craigslist and offer them in lots based on subject matter. Now that's a project!
3) I don't need this obscene debt I have managed to strangle myself with. This year I have done a great job of paying several loans off but there is a whole lot left to get rid of. It is impossible to think it could be done in one year unless I hit the lottery. But, I hope to continue to focus on getting Joe and me debt free before we "retire" (he will, there is no way I can) with only the house mortgage to knock off.
4) This one is way too personal to post on this blog - but I am trying to alter my behavior in the hopes of altering someone else.
5) Another way too personal and would absolutely kill someone if I even hinted that this is something I do not need and consider it a drag on my existence. People have all sorts of reasons to justify their behavior/addictions/personality traits.
6) I am not one to dwell on negative things. There is no way in hell I can come up with 11 things I do not need in 2011 and am willing to change. There are many things I would like to change about myself - I'm a procrastinator for one. I try on a daily basis to not let it screw things up. I rely too much on my being smart and fast.
Reverb for Dec 10th
December 10 – Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Author: Susannah Conway)
In January I was offered the Assistant Marketing Director position at the local Mall. I was flabbergasted at the paltry salary attached to such a lofty title. In addition, they bragged about how they had decided to combine the Secretary position with the Assistant position due to budget cuts.
I decided to take the position and to hang on to my sales job at the Bucket by reverting to part time.
Smartest thing I ever did. Event though I work anywhere from 52-67 hours per week, it's okay. My drinking has suffered. I am totally out of practice. And the extra moola has come in extremely handy for those surprises that life hands you.
The most important truths have revealed themselves working retail. I have a semi-skill that is fun and I like.
I'm not certain if necessity caused me to hang on to the Bucket job but the wisdom in such a move has proven to be one of the best decisions I ever made.
In January I was offered the Assistant Marketing Director position at the local Mall. I was flabbergasted at the paltry salary attached to such a lofty title. In addition, they bragged about how they had decided to combine the Secretary position with the Assistant position due to budget cuts.
I decided to take the position and to hang on to my sales job at the Bucket by reverting to part time.
Smartest thing I ever did. Event though I work anywhere from 52-67 hours per week, it's okay. My drinking has suffered. I am totally out of practice. And the extra moola has come in extremely handy for those surprises that life hands you.
The most important truths have revealed themselves working retail. I have a semi-skill that is fun and I like.
I'm not certain if necessity caused me to hang on to the Bucket job but the wisdom in such a move has proven to be one of the best decisions I ever made.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Yesterday's #10 Reverb
Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.
I can not talk about the reunion party with the Frat brothers over and over. I did have a heck of a good time at the reunion party with the High School I did not attend and mainly because I was with my BFF from Florida. I had a fabulous time at the surprise 50th birthday party for my brother-in-law. And then again there was the Hayride party! Now that was a hell of a good time even though we showed up at the tail end of the party but we started part II which continued well into the wee hours of the morning. We had numerous impromptu gatherings at the Eagles Nest all summer, they were fab. Maybe somewhere in the next 20 "challenges" I can elaborate about each them. But the best party aka social gathering of 2010, is the same one of 2009, and before that 2008 and all the way back to maybe 1998 (I could have the year mixed up) when my brothers and sisters, sometimes Mom and Dad and some special invitees & extras and more recently, long lost cousins gather together. Yes, I am talking about the annual four day week-end at the lake house held each year in June (thought we had to have it in Aug in 2009 because of scheduling problems).
I look forward to it every year and every year it never lets me down.
The early years brought the inception and execution of Treasure Island when a boat load of young children first made way to an abandoned island (courtesy of TVA) and hunted buried treasure with a pirate map! What was found? Jewelry and dinosaur bones, dolls and board games! Oh the treasure you will unearth by being able to follow a map and decipher clues. One year a bottle of special tequila, made to look old and decrepit, was hidden (as a joke for the major Trouble maker) and found by his young son who said, "Yuck" and proceeded to toss it with all the might of a seven year old intent on smashing the horrible looking liquid. My other brother in law, quick thinking and fleet of foot and prepared to take one for the team, made the ultimate sacrifice of diving full length to catch the expensive bottle before it crashed into a tree. All the loot, and a limping slightly boat captain, made it back with a ton of fabulous prizes.
And then, they grew too old for such games and in boredom invented a game called "Smash everyone with the heavy wet soggy water balls as they bounce up and down on the water trampoline and try to swim from said trampoline to the dock." It sounds complicated but it was about 15 minutes of total hilarity with screaming and splashing and smashing and then more! The other brother in law, all six feet six of him, standing on the dock with his back to the floating island of young super shots, shaking his large butt at them singing "Na na na na na, you can't hit me....na na na na na." He was ultimately taken out and down by 10 kids!
Then as night falls and mosquito's come out we retreat inside the house to play charades, the most anticipated and discussed game of the week end.It is always a random pick for teams and you always have a mix of young children (keep it clean guys!) with college aged kids and then, of course my Mother (when she is there). The kids are relentless and take no prisoners when it comes to making it as difficult as can be "picks". For example, pink fairy armadillo in the animal category.
The one that stands head and shoulders above all other charade years was a Movie category, "Moonstruck". Yes, my mother got mooned and was laughing so hard she couldn't get "Moonstruck" out, even though she knew the answer.
I look forward to it each year. It can't come soon enough and it passes like the breeze over the lake.
It is easily the best time of year and the best times of my life. Family.
Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.
I can not talk about the reunion party with the Frat brothers over and over. I did have a heck of a good time at the reunion party with the High School I did not attend and mainly because I was with my BFF from Florida. I had a fabulous time at the surprise 50th birthday party for my brother-in-law. And then again there was the Hayride party! Now that was a hell of a good time even though we showed up at the tail end of the party but we started part II which continued well into the wee hours of the morning. We had numerous impromptu gatherings at the Eagles Nest all summer, they were fab. Maybe somewhere in the next 20 "challenges" I can elaborate about each them. But the best party aka social gathering of 2010, is the same one of 2009, and before that 2008 and all the way back to maybe 1998 (I could have the year mixed up) when my brothers and sisters, sometimes Mom and Dad and some special invitees & extras and more recently, long lost cousins gather together. Yes, I am talking about the annual four day week-end at the lake house held each year in June (thought we had to have it in Aug in 2009 because of scheduling problems).
I look forward to it every year and every year it never lets me down.
The early years brought the inception and execution of Treasure Island when a boat load of young children first made way to an abandoned island (courtesy of TVA) and hunted buried treasure with a pirate map! What was found? Jewelry and dinosaur bones, dolls and board games! Oh the treasure you will unearth by being able to follow a map and decipher clues. One year a bottle of special tequila, made to look old and decrepit, was hidden (as a joke for the major Trouble maker) and found by his young son who said, "Yuck" and proceeded to toss it with all the might of a seven year old intent on smashing the horrible looking liquid. My other brother in law, quick thinking and fleet of foot and prepared to take one for the team, made the ultimate sacrifice of diving full length to catch the expensive bottle before it crashed into a tree. All the loot, and a limping slightly boat captain, made it back with a ton of fabulous prizes.
And then, they grew too old for such games and in boredom invented a game called "Smash everyone with the heavy wet soggy water balls as they bounce up and down on the water trampoline and try to swim from said trampoline to the dock." It sounds complicated but it was about 15 minutes of total hilarity with screaming and splashing and smashing and then more! The other brother in law, all six feet six of him, standing on the dock with his back to the floating island of young super shots, shaking his large butt at them singing "Na na na na na, you can't hit me....na na na na na." He was ultimately taken out and down by 10 kids!
Then as night falls and mosquito's come out we retreat inside the house to play charades, the most anticipated and discussed game of the week end.It is always a random pick for teams and you always have a mix of young children (keep it clean guys!) with college aged kids and then, of course my Mother (when she is there). The kids are relentless and take no prisoners when it comes to making it as difficult as can be "picks". For example, pink fairy armadillo in the animal category.
The one that stands head and shoulders above all other charade years was a Movie category, "Moonstruck". Yes, my mother got mooned and was laughing so hard she couldn't get "Moonstruck" out, even though she knew the answer.
I look forward to it each year. It can't come soon enough and it passes like the breeze over the lake.
It is easily the best time of year and the best times of my life. Family.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Poker is not my game
2) I am very good at correspondence. I love to pack your mail box with snail mail. Back when I worked with the beverage company and had quit a bit of time to do these things I was better at it. Send me your address and you are likely to receive post cards and note cards from me. Some hand made!My Christmas cards from several years ago (when I was unemployed) where the bomb!
3) I am a hard worker and I know when I arrive at the Bucket people are glad I finally made it (I'm usually a minute or two late!).
4) I can write a grand letter! As a matter of fact, I am one hell of a good writer. You would not believe the loot I can get by just asking in a letter! Have I mentioned here that my Mom had a letter published in Time magazine in the 1960's taking the economist John Kenneth Galbraith to task over his put down of stay at home Mom's? I got a little of that in me too. ( I really need to write more about my Mom and what a phenomenon she is.)
5) Joe tells me stuff all the time about how I am the voice of reason, how I help him think things through and rationalize things. It's so much easier to do for someone else than yourself!
6) I truly am a good listener. I am interested in you and give you my full attention unless you are some dumb ass giving me a line of crap and then I still listen, but not so sympathetically. I save the bull crap and may write about it (look out and do not blow smoke up my apron). (I have this one crazy conversation I recently had with a 19 year old co-worker that still makes me shake my head).
7) I love old people. I would love to someday concentrate on how beautiful memories are retained and passed down.
8) I once asked my Mom what she thought made each of her kids special. And she told me that she thought I was the most compassionate of all her kids so I guess I'll go with Mom. I would give you the shirt off my back.
I am not a good poker player. You can read every emotion on my face.
Outside Looking In
# 10 Reverb
Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?
I never have been much of a joiner. I try and I fail most the time. I loose interest or my good intentions become washed out or my expectations are not met. I have a glamorized and totally delusional image of myself that I carry around in my head. I think I have magical powers that cause me to become involved in all sorts of endeavors that I have little business atttempting. But, like I said I am delusional.
To tell the truth, I am a trifle bit of a loner. This is a good thing because the tendency has served me well. To pick up roots and move (and baby, I have moved over and over again) has not tramatized me (much).
One move really stands out. When AOL shut down AOL Journal's and scattered us to the four corners of the Internet. If I felt really involved in a community, it was AOL J-Land. I began journaling on line a few weeks into their kick off and loved it. Absolutely loved it. At that time it was a small community that every day highlighted five journalist's. Every day. Five journalist! We got to know each other pretty well in the beginning.
Nothing that wonderful and intimate and worthy can stay that way very long and it took a hit several years later by allowing advertising on the journals without the permission of the writers. Anarchy responded. People left in droves and set up a "community" outside J-Land on Blogger. It did not work. But AOL was delivered a blow it never recovered from. The best of the best had jumped ship. Then it was totally shut down several years after.
Enough of that.
This sense of community, trying to find, fit in and become a part of clearly alludes me. I have hooked up with the Little Black Dress Club in the area and loved the first gathering at Applebees. But the recent attempts to get together and have a Bunco club, or even have a Holiday Open House have been thwarted by some by-laws or such nonsense. That saddens me because there was this one woman who practically promised me a Key Lime Martini. Bummer.
And my stab at Home Based Business was almost a disaster. I felt like I was plunked down into a sorority house. Yikes and no thank you. I will venture out on my own and do my own thing (loner and hard headed).
I can not get a grasp on the community of belonging in this area. It's too weird for me. Weird in a way that I have never been so surrounded by people who do not bend. Who see Black and White. There is only one way to do things and that is the official and directed way. No variance. That's military.
I don't foresee the future being much different. I sure would like to play Bunco while drinking a martini though.
Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?
I never have been much of a joiner. I try and I fail most the time. I loose interest or my good intentions become washed out or my expectations are not met. I have a glamorized and totally delusional image of myself that I carry around in my head. I think I have magical powers that cause me to become involved in all sorts of endeavors that I have little business atttempting. But, like I said I am delusional.
To tell the truth, I am a trifle bit of a loner. This is a good thing because the tendency has served me well. To pick up roots and move (and baby, I have moved over and over again) has not tramatized me (much).
One move really stands out. When AOL shut down AOL Journal's and scattered us to the four corners of the Internet. If I felt really involved in a community, it was AOL J-Land. I began journaling on line a few weeks into their kick off and loved it. Absolutely loved it. At that time it was a small community that every day highlighted five journalist's. Every day. Five journalist! We got to know each other pretty well in the beginning.
Nothing that wonderful and intimate and worthy can stay that way very long and it took a hit several years later by allowing advertising on the journals without the permission of the writers. Anarchy responded. People left in droves and set up a "community" outside J-Land on Blogger. It did not work. But AOL was delivered a blow it never recovered from. The best of the best had jumped ship. Then it was totally shut down several years after.
Enough of that.
This sense of community, trying to find, fit in and become a part of clearly alludes me. I have hooked up with the Little Black Dress Club in the area and loved the first gathering at Applebees. But the recent attempts to get together and have a Bunco club, or even have a Holiday Open House have been thwarted by some by-laws or such nonsense. That saddens me because there was this one woman who practically promised me a Key Lime Martini. Bummer.
And my stab at Home Based Business was almost a disaster. I felt like I was plunked down into a sorority house. Yikes and no thank you. I will venture out on my own and do my own thing (loner and hard headed).
I can not get a grasp on the community of belonging in this area. It's too weird for me. Weird in a way that I have never been so surrounded by people who do not bend. Who see Black and White. There is only one way to do things and that is the official and directed way. No variance. That's military.
I don't foresee the future being much different. I sure would like to play Bunco while drinking a martini though.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Making A Mess of Things???
#Reverb10
Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?
Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?
Putting my thinking cap on and off all day long I finally remembered something that I had "made" that was not food related! Even though I was dying to tell you all the adventure of making those Cake Pops.
Finally it came to me upon waking this morning, that I had attempted to make some salt scrubs earlier in the year when I had the bright idea that I would sell them at the farmers market.
Have you ever tried to make anything with oils? It's frigging hard if you don't know what you're doing! Everything I read, all the recipes I looked up (including good old Martha) make it sound so easy.
I gathered all the ingredients from far and wide. Including sea salt from the real source, the Dead Sea! I located (over priced) essence oils in a health food store in town. On one of my trips to Louisville I found a reasonably priced bottle of Almond oil. Coconut oil was found at the Mall at the vitamin store! Shea butter came from Africa. Epsom salts - Walmart. Canning jars from Big Lots.
I was ready. I laid it all out and began to mix, stir, experiment, drip drip in the drops of essence oil, heat the coconut oil in the microwave to make it runny and workable, ditto with the Shea butter. The bullet (Christmas gift last year) came in mighty handy for pulverizing that salt!
I decorated the jars with ribbons and decorative remnants of cloth in soothing shades.
The oil separated.
Ditch the almond oil, work with the coconut oil.
Everything smelled like coconuts. Even the pretty pink salt with peppermint essence oil.
That was a disaster! But I certainly have some smooth skin!
And a slippery bathtub.
Monday, December 06, 2010
Plus Seven
Sunday December 5th
Grace in Small things - elongated version
1) Peppermint bark - yum
2) Working with my buddy Kim.
3) Seeing old reports from last year on HBTN's desk and seeing my name with Kim & Rita & Cindy & Ms. W and K. It made me smile remembering How Much Fun it was last year.
4) Made me realize I wanted to have a small gathering at the house! So I will. Just need to find a time when Kim and I don't work at the same time. Going to be tough during the holidays.
5) Checked out a bunch of jewelry books at the library just to look at the designs and teach myself somethings about vintage baubles. They are so much fun to thumb through!
Grace in Small things - elongated version
1) Peppermint bark - yum
2) Working with my buddy Kim.
3) Seeing old reports from last year on HBTN's desk and seeing my name with Kim & Rita & Cindy & Ms. W and K. It made me smile remembering How Much Fun it was last year.
4) Made me realize I wanted to have a small gathering at the house! So I will. Just need to find a time when Kim and I don't work at the same time. Going to be tough during the holidays.
5) Checked out a bunch of jewelry books at the library just to look at the designs and teach myself somethings about vintage baubles. They are so much fun to thumb through!
Plus 6
Grace in Small Things
Extended Version
Saturday December 4th
1) (Resumed) cleaning out closet. Lot's of wonderful room. But garage is filling up fast.
2) Got box of old jewelry from the 80's and 90's from the garage and played with old funky jewelry for a little while. Put in Stella and Dot boxes and using a Sharpie, told when I thought I got it, who gave it to me etc. (lot's of junk!lol)
3) The Grinch made a trip to the Mall and I was back in my official capacity as Mall photographer. I had to be at the Bucket for my shift beginning at 5pm, but I managed to take photo's of all the Mall employee kids and still be at work on time!
4) The Angel Tree kid I have asked for "science and musical" toys (isn't that sweet) so the paper Jamz at the Bucket is marked down! So I go that and a dinosaur excavation kit. (cool)
5) UK game on tv - the BIG screen too! They almost beat UNC at NC. Good game, even thought I missed the final 15 minutes b/c of the Grinch. He is a mean one!
Extended Version
Saturday December 4th
1) (Resumed) cleaning out closet. Lot's of wonderful room. But garage is filling up fast.
2) Got box of old jewelry from the 80's and 90's from the garage and played with old funky jewelry for a little while. Put in Stella and Dot boxes and using a Sharpie, told when I thought I got it, who gave it to me etc. (lot's of junk!lol)
3) The Grinch made a trip to the Mall and I was back in my official capacity as Mall photographer. I had to be at the Bucket for my shift beginning at 5pm, but I managed to take photo's of all the Mall employee kids and still be at work on time!
4) The Angel Tree kid I have asked for "science and musical" toys (isn't that sweet) so the paper Jamz at the Bucket is marked down! So I go that and a dinosaur excavation kit. (cool)
5) UK game on tv - the BIG screen too! They almost beat UNC at NC. Good game, even thought I missed the final 15 minutes b/c of the Grinch. He is a mean one!
Letting Go
December 5th Reverb 10
Prompt: Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?
After a two year absence from the work force and yet another move from the sunny side of Louisville (across the river in Indiana) to the tiny town that straddles Tennessee and Kentucky, it was decided that I needed to find a job. I had to do something more effective than play the game of roulette wheel called Career Builder.
Searching Career Builder led to nary a lead. Avon positions, small investment opportunities, non-salaried positions prevailed the landscape of this military equipped, supplied, signed, sealed and delivered little corner of the world.
There was nothing. Even a search of Nashville yielded little to nothing. Interviews were scarce. It was then that I had to revert back to an old system of looking for a job - hitting the pavement.
My first stop was the Biscuit Bucket that is approximately six miles down the two laner from our house on the border town. I was almost hired on the spot. Heather Be Thy Name was the brand new Retail Manager and called me later that day to set up an interview. I was so desperate that I took it and was to report on Wednesday for official training.
I took the job thinking that it would be short term. I was convinced I could find something more in my line of expertise, account and sales management, that would utilize my college business degree. Hopefully in the beverage industry which I knew like the back of my hand.
Did not happen. Isn't that the way life works. Those ironic little twists and turns on the road to salvation?
I had to let go of the idea that I was better than this. I had to kiss good-bye the notion that this work was beneath me. I had to drop kick the resentment. Resentment? Yes, I was angry that no one valued my experience, my smarts and my charm.
I had to tie it all up in one big parcel and tie about a thousand balloons to it and let it go...go...go...Up..Up..Up.
And as the previous entry, I am very happy working my butt off for the great unwashed. Letting go was the best thing I could have done for myself.
Prompt: Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?
After a two year absence from the work force and yet another move from the sunny side of Louisville (across the river in Indiana) to the tiny town that straddles Tennessee and Kentucky, it was decided that I needed to find a job. I had to do something more effective than play the game of roulette wheel called Career Builder.
Searching Career Builder led to nary a lead. Avon positions, small investment opportunities, non-salaried positions prevailed the landscape of this military equipped, supplied, signed, sealed and delivered little corner of the world.
There was nothing. Even a search of Nashville yielded little to nothing. Interviews were scarce. It was then that I had to revert back to an old system of looking for a job - hitting the pavement.
My first stop was the Biscuit Bucket that is approximately six miles down the two laner from our house on the border town. I was almost hired on the spot. Heather Be Thy Name was the brand new Retail Manager and called me later that day to set up an interview. I was so desperate that I took it and was to report on Wednesday for official training.
I took the job thinking that it would be short term. I was convinced I could find something more in my line of expertise, account and sales management, that would utilize my college business degree. Hopefully in the beverage industry which I knew like the back of my hand.
Did not happen. Isn't that the way life works. Those ironic little twists and turns on the road to salvation?
I had to let go of the idea that I was better than this. I had to kiss good-bye the notion that this work was beneath me. I had to drop kick the resentment. Resentment? Yes, I was angry that no one valued my experience, my smarts and my charm.
I had to tie it all up in one big parcel and tie about a thousand balloons to it and let it go...go...go...Up..Up..Up.
And as the previous entry, I am very happy working my butt off for the great unwashed. Letting go was the best thing I could have done for myself.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
I WONDER
I am constantly astonished that, in the Autumn of my life,
- I find myself needing to reinvent who I am
- required to step out of my comfort zone
- forced to make new friends
- mandatory to find a new occupation
- living in a strange environment (military town)
- adapting daily to situations of which I have no control
- working as hard as I ever have in my life (save that stint with the crazy people in North East Indiana which forced me to resign from the beverage company - but I was rehired in a better, more suited position several months later) ( and that time I volunteered to help out my fledgling restaurant owner friends on Mothers Day -but that was only one day)
And the crazy wonder of it all is that this past year I have been the happiest and most content that I ever have before.
Go figure.
Plus Five
Friday December 3rd
Grace in Small Things - Extended version
1) Mt "late day" at the Mall so I do not have to be here until 2pm. But, got up b/f 6am b/c I did not want to waste a single minute of the free time.
2) Shopped!
3) Went to Library
4) Went downtown (finally, been awhile) and visited Betty's Antique store and got some great ideas for presentation if I ever participate in a Stella and Dot show ever again and/or have a party . Who wants to have a trunk show?? Free jewelry. And it is smashing.
5) The new TV arrived. Oh happy day.
Friday, December 03, 2010
Going to Play Catch Up
Found this thru Schmutzie, who introduced me to the incredible Grace in Small Things, which she created, so why shouldn't she introduce me to another site to keep me occupied for the next month. This once called #Reverb10. I think I may be a couple of days late in beginning, so I'll just catch up somehow.
December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)
I am going to go with the very first thing that came into my minds eye...
Sometime earlier in the year I reconnected through FaceBook with about 40 guys I went to college with in the 1970's. I was a Little Sister to this group of fraternity men. Boys. They were boys back then.
First I connected with one of the other Little Sisters and from there it just snowballed. First one brother, then another then another until we had a whole group of us corresponding on FB.
Who had the bright idea to get together. Who had the brilliant idea to gather us all together one July afternoon when it was 100 degrees outside? Who had the clever idea to meet at P's house, who had a swimming pool and an understanding wife?
Leading up to the party I found I could not sleep and what little sleep I got, it was filled with memories that were almost too painful, too wonderful, too long ago to contain. Each day leading up to the party brought some new fantastic astonishments. One day it was a telephone call and the realization that this was really happening. First one old flame was coming, then another, then a third! I was practically giddy in those final hours.
I drove the 90 miles to the party alone. My husband had to work. My little friend C. who was suppose to keep an eye on me, watering down my drinks, bailed on me. I drove alone with the expectation and the giddiness and the joy swelling and building up in my heart as each mile brought me closer to 35 years ago.
I carried in a bottle of grain alcohol, a 12 pack of beer, a 1.7 bottle of coconut run. Do you think I was ready to party?
Funny what 35 years does to a person. How it plays with the face, expands the belly, changes the shape, how it messes with the hair lines and the hair color, but it does very little to the eyes and to the smile.
I recognized every one of them. I hugged everyone of them and I even cried.
For one afternoon we all stepped back. I did not see the faces of the middle age grandpa's. What I saw was the gang of young men I feel in love with.
Oh baby, did we party.
Best time ever.
December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)
I am going to go with the very first thing that came into my minds eye...
Sometime earlier in the year I reconnected through FaceBook with about 40 guys I went to college with in the 1970's. I was a Little Sister to this group of fraternity men. Boys. They were boys back then.
First I connected with one of the other Little Sisters and from there it just snowballed. First one brother, then another then another until we had a whole group of us corresponding on FB.
Who had the bright idea to get together. Who had the brilliant idea to gather us all together one July afternoon when it was 100 degrees outside? Who had the clever idea to meet at P's house, who had a swimming pool and an understanding wife?
Leading up to the party I found I could not sleep and what little sleep I got, it was filled with memories that were almost too painful, too wonderful, too long ago to contain. Each day leading up to the party brought some new fantastic astonishments. One day it was a telephone call and the realization that this was really happening. First one old flame was coming, then another, then a third! I was practically giddy in those final hours.
I drove the 90 miles to the party alone. My husband had to work. My little friend C. who was suppose to keep an eye on me, watering down my drinks, bailed on me. I drove alone with the expectation and the giddiness and the joy swelling and building up in my heart as each mile brought me closer to 35 years ago.
I carried in a bottle of grain alcohol, a 12 pack of beer, a 1.7 bottle of coconut run. Do you think I was ready to party?
Funny what 35 years does to a person. How it plays with the face, expands the belly, changes the shape, how it messes with the hair lines and the hair color, but it does very little to the eyes and to the smile.
I recognized every one of them. I hugged everyone of them and I even cried.
For one afternoon we all stepped back. I did not see the faces of the middle age grandpa's. What I saw was the gang of young men I feel in love with.
Oh baby, did we party.
Best time ever.
PLUS FOUR
Grace in Small Things
December 2
Thursday
1) Found sniper program for e-bay! No more losing the auction. Well, at least it will be closer.
2) Had the battery switched from the defunct and retired Movado to my old Beverage Co. watch, the one I received for my five year anniversary.
3) Picked an Angel Tree kid from the Salvation Army.
4) Met Joe at Applebee's for cocktails and appetizers after work. Fun.\
5) Zenyatta was waiting for me at home! Ordered her on Tuesday from Horse Park. Wild.
December 2
Thursday
1) Found sniper program for e-bay! No more losing the auction. Well, at least it will be closer.
2) Had the battery switched from the defunct and retired Movado to my old Beverage Co. watch, the one I received for my five year anniversary.
3) Picked an Angel Tree kid from the Salvation Army.
4) Met Joe at Applebee's for cocktails and appetizers after work. Fun.\
5) Zenyatta was waiting for me at home! Ordered her on Tuesday from Horse Park. Wild.
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