Vive la différence!

Photo from newsok.com - http://newsok.com/oklahomans-celebrate-independence/multimedia/photos/gallery/3473520/1/

I have apparently taken on the roll of family event organizer, although it's a little like herding cats. Sometimes you just have to give up polling the masses, pick a place and time, and see who shows up. This July 4th has lived up to the herding challenge, and not just because of the usual need to take into account everyone's preferences and schedules.

First there's the Bible Belt challenge. Every time a major holiday falls on a Sunday, town councils get busy rearranging the corresponding events. I can see moving the 10:00 a.m. parade away from the Sabbath. Few will choose parade attending or marching over worshiping. One would not want to miss the patriotic medley carefully prepared by the music minister and choir. But was it necessary to reschedule the fireworks?

Then there's the weather challenge. Yesterday parades all over the city were rudely interrupted by an absolute downpour, sending teenage beauty queens and tuba players scrambling for shelter. Today promises more of the same, with sunshine mixed with drenching rain making it difficult to plan. Dear invited guests - please bring your swimsuit and rain poncho along with your covered dish.

Just when I think I have it all organized, plans start changing. That plan for family members to join OKC Kayaks on their social paddle down the Oklahoma River to view the fireworks in Bricktown? Canceled due to predicted bad weather. Why do I hear fireworks at 10:00 on Saturday night? Because Bethany is holding their fireworks display on July 3rd. I really need to read the paper. Do they print these things or are we just supposed to intuitively know it.

And then there are the personal preferences. I have a phobia about loud noises so if we watch fireworks, I'll be wearing noise-deadening headphones. I am a closet pyromaniac and will be spending a month's wages on things that go boom and need a place to blow stuff up. I (temporarily) don't have any teeth so I don't want to go out in public. I don't like being outside where there are bugs. I prefer to be outside participating in extreme sports. I don't like large crowds. It's exhausting!!

Come to think of it, I guess that's what this holiday is all about -celebrating living in a country where you can freely do as you choose. Today we'll celebrate the family diversity and celebrate the freedom. God bless America and pass the hot dogs. Or brisket. Or veggie burgers.

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." - Erma Bombeck

Irish Eyes Are Smiling

It's spring break and it's St. Patrick's Day and I have a few days off from work.

Now you're all caught up. Buh-bye.

Just kidding. I'll throw out a few more thoughts in case you too are looking for filler material for Spring Break. What, you aren't competing in the Victoria's Secret bikini contest in Panama City? Not part of the MTV Spring Break cast in Acapulco? Not risking being murdered in a Mexico border town? Or maybe your parents are under the illusion they can still control your life and put the kibosh on those plans, and then your back-up plan to do relief work in Haiti didn't work out either. Sucks for you. But seriously, EVERYBODY is not on a beach somewhere for Spring Break. That's not statistically possible.

In a middle aged version of Spring Break, I'm considering planting a garden this week. Or at least digging up a garden plot and planting it after the threat of frost is over. Isn't that what you're supposed to do? Sounds gardener-ish to me. So quick, somebody talk me out of it before I get myself in too deep. Since we now live together with the in-laws and my Father-in-law is a gardener from way back, I was hoping he could guide me through the process. Or maybe I should just find a good farmer's market. Or plant two tomato plants and call it good.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I guess I'll go find something green to wear. There's Irish blood on Mark's side of the family just a couple of generations back, so we'll be doing a wee dance and drinking a pint 'o green tea. And I'll remember my own amazing Grandfather, who was born on March 17. Mark and I both have a good and Godly heritage that goes way back. We have a lot to build on.

But as the Irish say..."You've got your own growing to do, no matter how tall your Grandfather was."

I didn't see THAT coming

Wow! Is it the new year already? I did absolutely nothing to celebrate the new year. Is that lame? OK, it's lame.

Welcome to a new decade. Or is it the end of the old decade? I'm not quite sure. What I do know is that it's a new year and a fresh start. That's what I love about the turn of the year. There's something about it that makes one want to take stock of one's life and tweak it a bit where needed.

So much goes on in my head and my life that I just don't get written down. Somewhere in the midst of our moving and adjusting our life to a new normal I've gotten out of the habit of writing. I haven't found a rhythm for a daily routing yet in this new house. Often I feel like I'm just visiting. So writing more and settling in are two things high on my list for the new year.

Don't even talk to me about making some resolution to lose weight or exercise more. While both of those things are on my "must do" list, I'm just not going to force myself into a corner with that kind of New Year's resolution. I do plan to take this year's goals a little more seriously than I did last year, but that won't be hard to do. I'm gonna have to think, to consider the few things important enough to use up some of my limited energy, time and resources.

In the mean time, I've made a few changes to this blog. Nothing new there! Hope you have a fabulous new year.

Photo from Life Magazine Archive, 1963 by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Miss you!

Hello, hello. Anybody out there? I've just been lollygagging around since last you heard from me. That's a weird term, don't you think. It's really a grandma kind of term, so I'm showing my advanced age. Although I am not (yet) a grandparent. No pressure kids. Seriously. Baby Gap never goes out of style, so all those darling little baby things I have stashed in the closet can wait. While you lollygag. While my friend Judy sends me her grandbaby picture of the week. Weekly.

I just looked up the definition of lollygag:

lol-ly-gag (lah-lee-gag)
verb - (used without object)
1) to spend time idly; loaf
2) to indulge in kisses, caresses; make love; neck
Origin 1860-65 Americanism, origin unknown


OK - seriously never heard of the second definition. I was actually referring to the first for myself, although the second definition certainly applies to the making of grandbabies. Oh chill out. I'm just kidding. You have to wait until I retire to produce grandbabies so I can babysit.


I started this post out planning to provide you with a list of all the things I've been doing instead of blogging. Somehow I got off track. There's a big surprise. So really, I can't remember how much I've told you. So I'm just gonna put it in a list.

1. Mark has recovered nicely from losing his job by starting his own business. He's been crazy busy doing accounting/bookkeeping/software training and I couldn't be prouder. He even managed to squeeze a week in Florida into his schedule. He says he was working there and I have to believe him since he actually got paid. God is good. All the time. Anybody need a good accountant?


2. My day job has been non-stop, go-go-go and I've been teaching a couple of classes at a local university in the evenings.


3. And here's something really, really exciting. My sister and I started a non-profit. Call us crazy. We won't care because we already know this. We are scared, petrified, excited, breathless, tired. It's a long story, but you can get a glimpse of it here.

And here we are at Thanksgiving week. Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks. Because no matter what is going on in your life, there's always a little room for the giving of thanks. And grandbabies.

Sink-o de my-oh ship-oh

Yep, the ship is sinking here on the 5th of May - Cinco de Mayo if you didn't get the corny title of this blog post - and I'm gonna need a life boat soon. I feel a little like the townsfolk must have felt when Noah built the ark and the rains came down and the floods came up. I didn't get the memo that there would be non-stop rain for 40 days and 40 nights. My brain is as soggy as my yard.

Speaking of a soggy yard, I think we should buy some goats and rent them out. Companies like Goggle pay for thousands of goats to graze their land in order to control weeds and keep grass short. It's been so long since we were able to mow, I'm thinking a goat is about the only solution.

Wow, so I just had an unpleasant experience. I was looking up things to do on Cinco de Mayo on OPUBCO's Wimgo site. It's supposed to be a centralized place to look for things happening in Oklahoma. I was fascinated by the fact that the popular sushi restaurant in Tulsa, In the Raw, is celebrating this Mexican holiday with "plenty of Mexican food, beer, margaritas and much more". Um, what happened to sushi and sake? Because last time I checked a burrito has little in common with a California roll. Oh, and to add to the odd mix, the Mid-Life Crisis Band is playing. I've heard that's a really good band, but hmm, celebrate Cinco de Mayo in a sushi restaurant listening to a band of middle aged men playing classic rock from the 70's. Apparently all you need to celebrate Cinco de Mayo is a margarita and you're good to go.

Oh, anyway, so I was on Wimgo reading about In The Raw's planned celebration, clicked innocently on the "Go to Website" button to learn more about the festivities, and ended up on a porn site. Eewww!! Pu-leese!!Wimgo people! Get your links right. What happened? Was some bored, underpaid employee surfing skanky internet sites and copied the wrong link? Whatever happened, I hope you fix it soon. Now I'm afraid to click on any link on that site. I've heard OPUBCO (parent company of The Daily Oklahoman newspaper) was having financial trouble, but quality and reliability is still important, right? Yuck. Blech. I'm going to go wash out my eyes with soap.

Happy 5th of May!

I'm not a banker, so I'm off to work. But then who wants to be a banker these days...

I had a good weekend, if anyone cares. It was a perfect mix of fun, family, rest and checking things off my many lists. And because, as we all know, I love bullet points, that's how I'm going to continue with this post. Trust me, I'm doing you a favor because it will be so much easier to read than a long, run-on sentence that never seems to end and jumps from point to point and, well, you get it. So here goes. If you are in the "don't care" category, then check back tomorrow and maybe I'll have something profound to say. But don't hold your breath.

• Our staff lunch on Friday was at Avanti Bar and Grill which is attached to the Courtyard By Marriott over by Lowe's on the north side of the Kilpatrick, between May and Penn. If you're not from around here, then your eyes just rolled back in your head from all the details. It's an excellent restaurant and you must try it, but it's kind of hidden, thus the details. It opened last week, the night of the tornadoes, so you know how new it is. It would make a nice date destination. I know, you're thinking "now you tell me". Where was I when you were standing in line for two hours for a Valentine's dinner.
• Valentine's Day was pretty much a day-long date, in a empty nester sort of way. Starbucks first thing, (never have I seen so many couples there. Usually it's one spouse staggering in to grab the coffees and run) then Mark went with me to that old ice skating rink in Bethany that they've turned into an antique/flea market kind of place. It was his suggestion because it was Valentine's Day, and he actually enjoyed it, although if you ask him he'll tell you we were there for two hours when in reality it was more like 45 minutes. We are apparently antiques because the whole experience was like a stroll through our childhood. If we had only kept everything we ever owned, we could be selling them right now for ridiculous prices. I made an exciting $10 purchase which I will share another time after I upload the photo.
• Still talking about Valentine's Day, but I could tell I was losing you, so I'm hoping another bullet point will refresh your brain. So after the antique mall thing we drove our to Okarche to Eischen's for their famous chicken. Mark wanted a menu, which if you've ever been to Eischen's is kind of funny since pretty much they just slap a huge basket of fried chicken and another huge basket of fried okra on your table, along with some white bread and bread and butter pickles. That's the menu. But man is it good fried chicken.
• I think that's all I'm going to share about Valentine's Day except that in the evening "Somewhere In Time" was on TV. It's a movie with Christopher Reeves, who was GORGEOUS, and, and, dang I can't remember her name. Oh yeah, Jane Seymour. We saw that movie in the theater back in college and thought it was the most romantic movie ever. I remember crying. But I was always crying back in college. Sleep deprivation will do that to you. Anyway, it was a fitting ending to our walk-down-memory-lane Valentine's Day.
• Sunday after church (I admit it, we watched church online) we had our Sunday lunch with Angela and Riley, which is a habit I adore. Tessa was also home because she had volunteered at the Addy Awards Saturday, and niece Alli joined us. Los Amigos in Bethany is what makes me feel like we live in a small town surrounded by the big city. It's always full of people we know, which makes me feel connected.
• Last thing, if you're still with me. We hung our new kitchen cabinet doors and they are amazing. Well, we're still short two doors because the guy who made them got confused. But all the others are hung.

So I'm sure I missed something, but right now you're saying thank the Lord this post is over. I'm here all week. No really, I'm in town all week so I'm hoping to have a peaceful and productive number of days. Did you have a good weekend?

Books are the greatest inventon since sliced bread

I had a relatively technology free weekend. I'm currently devouring "The Sex-Lives of Cannibals" which I'm telling you is a very funny book. It's a travelogue of the sort you don't usually find. I wish I could turn my years of travel and living in strange places into an entertaining book that would keep readers up nights and make me the big bucks. I'm afraid though, that my travel epic would be filled with whining and self-pity and that the people discussed in the book would sue for character defamation or whatever people sue for. I've thought a lot about it, but can't settle on the genre. Is it drama? Could I write it as a comedy? Do I write it as fiction and change all the names? If I write it as a memoir and Oprah decides to feature it in her book club, will it stand up to her scrutiny? I'd hate to turn out like the poor soul she disemboweled on national television for daring to call a largely fictional account of his life a memoir, aka James Frey and his "A Million Little Pieces".

The brutal truth is that I doubt I have the discipline to write a book, and it's now 8:00 on a Monday and I haven't even showered, so I better get going. Although it's a National Holiday, some of us still have to work. See - dripping in self pity.

It's Monday and my brain isn't working

It's Monday and it's back to work after a holiday filled with food and family and fun and...laziness. (Couldn't think of another "f", maybe because my brain is mush from lack of use.) Annyyyway. From where I sit it looks like a full and very busy week ahead. Of course, where I'm sitting is where I've sat for about 10 days, so anything involving getting up, getting dressed in something nicer than jeans or sweats, and putting on a shoe with an actual heel looks like hard work to me. I can't complain too much though. I have to work approximately two weeks, albeit two very hard weeks, then I'm off for another two weeks. Gotta love trying to use up all your vacation time before the end of the year.

Instructions to myself for the week: Make every effort not to enroll in the "deferred life plan".

27 years of communication practice equals:

Me-the Christmas tree needs to be closer to the window so we can get around it.
Mark - further back?
Me-yep, keep going.
Mark -Will the drapes close?
Me- Just keep moving the tree back. OK perfect.
Mark - Will the drapes close now?
Me-No, the tree's in the way.

Guess you had to have been there.

I h8 halloween

Yuck. My least favorite day of the year. Halloween. When I was a kid it was fun. I think. I've never been a huge fan of dressing up. Probably I'm insecure and don't want to be uncool. When I was a kid living on Prairie Street in Olathe, Kansas, we would wait until dark, grab a bag big enough to hold the stash (we're talking pillowcase - not one of those polite little pumpkin-face buckets) round up the neighbor kids and start walking. No moms to hover. No fear of abduction or molestation or whatever it is we fear now for our children. The only slight spoiler was that we would often have to put our coats on over our carefully planned costumes, because by October 31st it was COLD. We would walk for blocks and blocks and blocks. It was only the rare house that didn't have their porch light on ready to receive us greedy goblins. There were no church "Trunk-or-Treat", no malls passing out candy. (I don't mean there weren't malls. Just that malls didn't pass out candy. Seriously, how old do you think I am?)

By the time my kids were trick-or-treat age Halloween just seemed a bit more creepy, more hard-edged, more evil. We were idealistic and eager to do the right thing. Our kids knew that Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy were all the same person and living right in their house. Not that we didn't have fun with those characters, we just didn't put on this whole charade that they were real. We chose to homeschool for their first few years of formal school, and Halloween was banned from our house.

Seriously! Our house was fun! We just chose not to celebrate creepiness. Which let me tell you, was not easy. We tried the first few years to let Angela dress in non-creepy costumes. One year she was a princess, another a ballerina. But then we'd go to the strip mall in town where they were passing out candy and there would be all the dripping blood, the things hanging from nooses, things back from the dead...yuck. Who wants to celebrate that?

So our tradition became making October 31st a fun family night. We'd turn off the porch light, order a pizza, and have a movie marathon or play games. Lots of fun, no gore.

Now that they are grown, my girls enjoy telling people they've never gone trick-or-treating and watch the astonishment and pity on their friend's faces. They're not freaks for lack of Halloween. And Mark and I now pass out candy to the few neighbor kids that don't go to the local church for their allotment of candy. But I still hate this day and what it celebrates.