So much going on

credits: Wintergreen by Mags Graphics and Winter Magic 

by Aprilisa Designs, Challenge word art by 

Kristmess, snowman paintings Fair Use from the Internet

Too much going on too? I have two big problems that I'm working on. I am proud to say that I actually am working on both of them. More on that in a minute…

Don't you just love the scrapbook page that started off my blog? I say that with all kinds of pride and I'm not sorry for stroking my own ego. I made that (No I didn't draw the pictures, I can't draw, but I did put it out to gather into a scrapbook page) and I’m very happy with how it turned out. The line referring to children making snowmen as “outdoor Michelangelos making Davids” is one I came up with many years ago and my husband David said it was too much to use on Christmas card. So I knew that eventually I wanted to use it for a scrapbook page and put that single line on a word document and then switched it to a pages document when I changed back to Mac. That's how long I was holding onto that line until I had time to create a scrapbook page I thought was worthy of it. I am VERY proud of that page.


All of my gifts and gift wrap are here and ready for me to put together, or anyway, ask David and/or my aides to put together for me.

To add to my pre-holiday excitement, I just found out that my niece, Rina, will be at my dad’s on Christmas Day after all! Originally, a first year assistant manager, of course has the short straw when it came to getting a holiday off and although she isn't working on Christmas was originally scheduled for Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas leaving no way she was going to drive all the way up to Michigan for Christmas day to turn around four hours later and go back to Indianapolis. As it works out she was able to get the schedule manipulated so that she can be in Michigan for the Christmas Eve feast at my cousin’s and for Christmas morning at Pop’s. I'm sure she feels great about it for her, but I will admit wholeheartedly that I personally feel blessed. I'm not so mobile and therefore not able to see my nieces anymore than once or twice a year now. Good thing at over 50 I'm still well-versed in the way 20-somethings communicate.

All I really need now is to get my wool cape dry cleaned and either spend a night driving around looking at Christmas lights or finding a night that's not quite so cold to go to the zoo and see The Lights Before Christmas. If that can't happen I'll settle for making some space for my little 2 foot tree.

The Lights Before Christmas at the Toledo zoo, 2011

Now back to my two problems. First problem, as I'm going backwards in years, is my hands. First let me describe what MS hands are like. My description of what my untreated hands feel like is imagine that your hands are twice the size that they are, almost like there's a second skin that's blown up over top of your regular hands and inside that second skin it's packed full of tiny buzzing insects and day and night that's all you feel is swollen hands stiffened by the fact that they're packed with these buzzing insects. I've tried so many different kinds of prescribed drugs and dry skin lotions so that I could use my hands, grab more things without dropping them and even type. Frustratingly, nothing was working, one of the drugs even made me sleep so soundly that I’d wake up not knowing what time of day it was and sometimes not even knowing where I was. As a thinker and a control freak THAT was not acceptable!

But now, I've become part of the cannabis generation! I have not taken up smoking or seriously doing drugs. But I use CBD ointment, which is basically the healing part of marijuana without the THC that makes you high (and gives you the munchies which I really don't need right now.) I use a combination of serum and the lotion. And I've been experimenting now with a 3X lotion that I can really feel when I put it on and it starts clearing up my hands right away. The 3X unfortunately stands for triple strength and triple price. But if it works and I can actually feel things and use my fingers to type or at least fix errors that using speech to text makes, might make it worth swallowing the extra cost.

Then there's the other problem that I'm fixing. I'm actually talking with a therapist again to help me sort out the fact that I have a huge list of priorities that's so overwhelming I can't prioritize all the priorities. I've worked with a therapist and psychologist before and as I've said in the past they are the most wonderful people in the world. I think the number one thing is that you have to be open to allowing them to help you and you have to accept that helping you is not doing it for you but it's helping you find it in yourself to do it for yourself. I'm not gonna say that it's difficult or that it's easy, that it's quick or takes forever. That depends on what the problems are that you are brave enough to tackle and strong enough to realize that you can't do it alone. So far I'm already starting to feel somewhat at ease as the professional I'm talking with is already helping me break up my priority list so I can tackle things one thing at a time.

OK now is the time where I mention again that while Rina is the dedicated retail manager moving her way up, just like her great grandmother did, her twin sister, Tori, is a psychologist in Indianapolis. To say that I am incredibly proud of MY millennials is truly an understatement.

Christmas last year

So that's me checking in for now. With a little more control over my hands I should be able to blog a little more. But realistically, I don't think the next blog will be from me because after reading JDs fill ins Marco has been bugging me that it's his turn. But I think I've got some Christmas pictures and maybe even Christmas music to share this weekend.

Please keep me or add me to your reading list. The positive comments really do keep me going.

Now I need to take a break so I can do some reading and commenting myself!

Behind The Dot

Hi everyone in the Interwebs!

I’m Julie Danielle Catinez, but call me JD. I like JD better. Mommy says Julie Danielle is my name but she only uses it when I’m bad. Bad? Who’s the cat here? I’ll tell you if I’m ever bad. I’ll turn 4 next year and be able to go to feline obedience school. I read that in the online sample of our first semester text book, “Make Them Obey.” Even if you don’t go to obedience school, it’s a best-seller at Catmazon!

Mommy follows some pretty cool blogs! She hasn’t writed a lot in a while, but she’s using stuff she says is like catnip but you don’t feel funny. It sounds like boring catnip, but it helps her help me write, so if she likes it, it’s okay for me.

Mommy follows some great blogs Of course there’s Miss Edna’s biog where we keep up on our friend, Pogo, but there are also blogs about or writed by other cats! They play Interwebs games together. Mommy’s gonna help me with Linky so I can play too.

Friendly Fill-Ins is a Friday game, and I will try to do it earlier this week.

Friendly Fill-Ins are from Four Legged Fur Balls and 15 and Meowing.

1. I look forward to seeing _________ at the holidays.

2. I can see _________ outside my _________ window.

3. _________ always puts me in a festive mood.

4. My favorite holiday tradition is _________.


1. I look forward to seeing Santa Paws at the holidays! Last year I was a kiteen (Mommy and Daddy say we look like cats at a year old, but kittenhood lasts for a couple years.) Because I just becomed a housecat last year, I never got treats and toys for Christmas before. I can’t wait this year!

2. I can see squirrels outside my front cat TV screen. (Which they tell me is also called a window) It snowed last month and Squirrely, the star of The Squirrel Show, went into his oak tree in front of the screen. But it got warmer and there was another episode!

3. Mommy puts on my favorite green blanket so I can sleep on her legs always makes me happy and that’s a festive mood. She makes Christmas scrapbook pages and it makes her happy.

4. My favorite holiday tradition is Mommy has Christmas candy so we get more treats!

Have fun! I’ll be back soon!

Friday By Request (Sprung Forward)

Did you remember to spring your non digital device clocks ahead? I set my calendar ahead two days. So no we have Friday By Request on Sunday!

As regulars at my Cyber Coffee Shop read on my last post, I’ve had some social and mojo issues as of late. 13 jigsaw puzzles in March so far, what I do to unstress, and a bit of creative bug is back… We’ll see how I did!

Today’s request is from my Facebook page, from Chickie, one of the great wedding gifts my husband gave me. She asked for a poem about eyes, mentioning my own, with a sweet compliment. I had written a poem called Eyes in 2003 and read the poem with a music background myself, in my overnight radio voice. I asked if she’d like me to include the somewhat shocking to some who know me poem and audio after the 2019 poem about eyes. She said, “yeah, please.”

So here are my very different 2019 and 2003 efforts featuring eyes.



Eyes On The Road - Be Brave
2019

Eyes on the road
Ears on the radio

The snow is cold and unforgiving
I should have never left
It started falling too soon
Sticking to the road less than an hour after I left
It’s like the storm is grabbing the car, pulling me back

Eyes on the road
Ears on the radio

The forecast says the snow slows down a half-hour ahead
I’m leaving for the promise of better
When I get there things will be good
It's 4am. 45 minutes ago is was supposed to be better a half hour ahead
They’re still making that same promise

Eyes on the road
Ears on the radio

Maybe I should turn around and give up
The freeway has snow, ice, semis and one little red sports car
I spent too much time with my eyes in he rearview mirror
The little sports car spins and is now facing the trucks
They give me room and I turn to face forward

Eyes on the road
Don’t look back

They keep saying it’s better ahead, but when?
I spin again and again the semis give me space to get back on track
I haven’t hit anything, is that a good sign?
I don’t think I believe the forecasters anymore
Need to make a call, it’s taking too long

Eyes on the road
Be strong, be patient

After a cup of coffee I’m back on the road
As daylight is breaking I can see how much it snowed
I’m tired, still scared, but the snow has finally slowed to gentle flakes
The road is still slick but I can see sunlight ahead
A truck passes and today the little red sports car enjoys the briny shower

Eyes on the road
It’s getting brighter

As I reach the interchange it's bright and the roads have turned to slush
It's still not fun to drive in but better than a few hours ago
Later than expected, but I reach my destination
The first stop of my long journey but things are better
I’m relieved. I’m safe. I’m glad I didn’t turn back

Eyes on the road
No matter how long it takes





Eyes
2003

Eyes peer into the darkness,

looking for a friend.
A lonely heart cries from emptiness,
will my search ever end?

Lips thirst for another's to quench them,
eyes sparkling bright.

A body hungers for passion inside it,
fireworks explode in the night.

A soul warmed by the company beside it,
things are just as they seem.

Fantasies fulfilled fade to quieting moments,
eyes drift off to dream.

I'm Sorry That Last Weekend Didn't Happen

Last WEEK was an insane week for for me.

My nurse, who takes care of me during the week, started the week with the flu. How do medical professionals gets sick? Isn't that impossible? That pretty much much had her out for the week. The feeling sick part was over and she'd come in for short stops to take care of the basics”weak as a kitten" during therecovery portion.

Add to that a sick husband during the first half of the week. David didn’t have the flu, just a REALLY bad cold. " Husbands aren't supposed to get sick either, right? No, wait, that's moms. Moms aren't supposed to get sick according to the commercial. I don't know if that's a fail as a commercial because I don't remember the product, I just remember that moms aren't supposed to get sick. Okay, I do know the truth that when husbands get sick they turn into big babies. When are husband of a disabled spouse get sick, he retreats into a sleeping and coughing shell.

So it's been a very rough week for me because it's been a rough week for the people around me.

I finally had some private time where I could actually do phone calls to go with the research I've been doing all week. After an exhausting five hours of answers that were the opposite of what I wanted to hear, Yannie, my nurse, was here for about an hour and a half. (she usually does a LOT more than nursing stuff for me) and then after she left I drifted into a semi defeated nap.

The greatest understatement I can make right now, is it my social media mojo, heck, my mojo in general, is kind of not there.

I did have a couple how long phone calls with family members, friends up in Michigan. That was good for the soul, as it always is. But right now things aren't generally fabulous for any of us. So at least for now, the two hour phone call with one of my to beloved butt kickers didn't even push me in the direction of solving my problems. She just presented me with a few more avenues to use to look for help. I'm grateful for that but it's more work, maybe better answers. I have two sisters that have been in my life for a long time, who have traditionally grabbed me by the shoulders faced me in the direction of the better choice of the ones I'm considering and kicked me in the butt to get me moving. Unfortunately what I'm dealing with right now isn't that simple. So a couple of calls felt good but it didn't inspire my creativity… Yet

Stay tuned - I'm planning to do last weekend's Friday by Request and Weekend Playlist this coming weekend.

Weekend Playlist February 24

The weekend ends when I go to bed on Sunday night. I have pills that I take at 1 AM so no day ends until after one anyway. I guess you could say my body clock is stuck in the central time zone. It's okay because I LOVE Chicago! anyway. ;)

So these were the last five songs from my library on shuffle before David left this morning at 8 AM. It's just been a crazy Sunday, so I'm just a little behind.

This weekend’s selections are courtesy of iTunes via Joey II, my current main computer, last year’s birthday gift I gave to myself. As usual, enjoy, be confused, be surprised, but please don't judge too hard.

Let Me Love You, DJ Snake featuring Justin Bieber

Devil At The Door, The Skeleton Club

When We Make Love, Ginuwine

Walk Right Back, The Everly Brothers

No Diggity, Blackstreet

There are a lot of people that seem to have a certain genre of music or certain band that is the music that just defines educational portions of their life. I know in high school I was definitely the confusing combination of loving classical music and being a heavy metal chick. I would have never made it through trade school without my country music and in the 90s R&B is what finished my bachelors degree full timewhile juggling three part-time jobs.

I liked No Diggity the first time I heard it in the car. I love the whole feel of the music but what I totally fell in love with the first time I heard the song was the term “eargasm” to describe basically a sound that will blow you away. I love the nuances and incredible ways you can use the English language to say the same thing so many different ways, but I also love being able to use that language to create words to add even more color to it. Trust me, I could put together a mini dictionary of words and phrases I use on a regular basis that if you hear anyone else use them it's because they've been hanging out with me too long. LOL. So, work with me here, keeping in mind the eclectic taste thing. First thing that came to mind when I heard that word was Ravel’s Bolero. In it's day Bolero was frowned upon by many in society because the piece was so risqué. Seriously it builds up to and finishes with a GIANT eargasm!

Every time I hear the song it brings me back to a time where a normal Wednesday was often, wake up in the morning, put together my schoolbag, make sure I have my ID badge and head to good old Tiger Stadium to be there plenty early before 1:05PM gametime on getaway day, work the jumbotron graphics and praying we didn't go into extra innings so I’d have enough time to stop at Cracker Barrel and have that meal that comes between work and school because my three hour direct marketing class was in Monroe at 7 PM. I think it reminds me most of Wednesdays because it was still bigon the radio and staple at the ballpark too.

I'll be honest. MS notwithstanding, I'm still not sure I could do what I did for two years to finish my degree now. I will tell you though, having the degree, and my three jobs that included being in major league baseball games and getting a check for it, working with Fortune 1000 executives and editing and studying the “baby picture” segments as an assistant editor for a wedding videographer which eventually inspired some of the work I did years later in my own business was an exhausting time in my life but I wouldn't trade for anything as part of my past.

I have a separate playlist that's just 90s R&B, that includes No Diggity by Blackstreet, that brings me back for a little while to the two years that were consumed by baseball, company executives public speaking education, wedding videos and that beautiful piece of paper that said I finally earned my DEGREE in broadcast communications. It truly says it's never too late to go back to school and finish. But I really do think the way that I did it, you probably should still be a younger older to do it that way.

The lyrics and the song really don't match what I was doing at the time, and yet maybe they kind of do too.. “Ain't nothing going on but the rent." Note to all women: whatever you choose to do or need to do just make sure you are the one who calls the shots. Don't ever put up with anyone standing in the way of you having the control over you.

As usual video services seemed to have really clamped down on the ability to embed videos. I can probably figure out what I need to do to make that happen, but when I'm still playing the Chicago body clock card, it's really not a project I have time to take on just now. If you’d like to see the video, click on the link below the photo.

https://youtu.be/3KL9mRus19o

Weekend Playlist February 17

Happy Sunday! My weeks are so busy right now that I feel like I’m working full time again, only instead of getting a paychecks, I’m writing checks. -sigh- There are two things I miss the most. I don't get to scrapbook anywhere near as much as I'd like and I don't get to blog as much as I want to either, especially during the week.

But a scrapbook page may take to a week to do a simple one, and I may only post one or two blogs a week, but at least I do get a little bit the fun part of my life. Because of the MS and several other things that I have going on in my world , I talk to nurses and psychologists from the insurance company and a couple of other providers pretty much every week or so. One of the questions that they always ask, I think it's pretty much a boilerplate question to check for depression because it's also one of the questions that they ask at Cleveland Clinic when I go in to see my MS doctors too, is "do you find that you have little interest in the things you enjoy doing?" Last week when I spoke to my case manager from the insurance company I answered honestly, "oh it's not that I don't have interest I just don't have time for the things that I really want to do."

So as it is on Sunday, here are the last five songs from my music library on shuffle: (As usual, please don't judge!)

No Such Thing As A Broken Heart, Old Dominion

We Found Love, Rhianna

Blurred Lines, Robin Thicke

This Is Your Day, 112

Video Killed The Radio Star, The Buggles

I love irony. Video Killed The Radio Star was recorded in 1979, but is remembered eternally as the first video shown on MTV at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981. Do you remember when music videos were new? Do you remember when MTV actually played music videos?

Things move, things change. The Walkman, which actually came into existence before MTV, gained popularity. Remember putting a cassette in a little contraption with earphones? You could walk around, ignoring everything around you, listening to your music getting hit by a car crossing the street because you were ignoring the don't walk sign. Then it grew into a CD player that you could carry around with you. I had one of the CD players that I hooked up to the cassette player in my car so I could listen to CDs in my car. When those first came out the biggest problem was every time I hit a bump in the car the CD skipped. Eventually they made CD players that were a little more stable but by then MP3 players were coming out and cars had CD players instead of cassette players in them anyway.

In the history of the car it didn't have a radio at all and then there were AM radios, and FM radios, and then eight track players… for there is always been something to kill the last kind of star, hasn't there?

My great-grandmother and I were always very close and from the time that I turned 16 and got my license we would get together every Tuesday for coffee and sit and just talk for a few hours. I absolutely loved those nights because we just loved sharing stories. When I was on the high school radio station in 12th grade, she was just close enough to get the station in and listened to us every morning. She was tickled when every now and then my partner would dedicate a song to “Opal, one of our favorite listeners.” I did the news and had to be very careful to make sure it was accurate because I think I was her most regular source for national and local information. There were a lot of times during the 7:30am slot, I think she may have been our only listener too.

She shared stories with a smile about how the world had changed in her lifetime. When she was born they didn't even have electricity or indoor plumbing. and now her great grand daughter can drive a car to come visit her and even bring ice cream. She was in our cable area and sometimes watched my sports programming, I think mostly the end to see my name on TV. My boss, the Executive Producer, and me, the Producer on the fist page of the credits. She was alive when women won the right to vote, the 19th Amendment ratified the year she turned 14. She was a line inspector at Ford Motor Company and boasted a photo of the truck I drove for productions work for everyone to see. She saw the first Mustang come off the assembly line and wanted one of the "Pony Cars" since you first saw them. Her last car ended up being a Mustang (a cute, four-cylinder muscle car) with my mother my grandmother telling my father and grandfather “don't you dare even think about talking her out of it. No man is selling the WRONG car this time.” One of the things she bragged about with that was in the last 70 years, at the time, the women in our family had gotten stronger because we don't give up and we don't let ourselves get old.

She always smiled and reveled in the changes in the world and how most of them made life better. She is without question how I learned to appreciate changes in the world and changes in our personal lives in general. She probably has a lot to do with my interest in domestic history over learning details about wars. And don’t get old - My great-grandmother loved the old gospel and country music she grew up with. She was also a fan of REO Speedwagon.

She is definitely the source of my eclectic musical taste and I will always love her for that. My mother’s tastes were the same kind of defying the demographic. I'm the one who introduced HER to Dmitri Shostakovich and SHE played Toad The Wet Sprocket for me. My great-great-grandmother had an Elvis scrapbook because she loved his music from the first time she heard it and the family remembered quote was “That boy is definitely going to change things!” That love of current music seemed to skip a generation with my grandmother but she learned how to use a computer in her 70s, so we'll give her a pass on the music.

As I said before I love irony and then love domestic history. Video Killed The Radio Star is an important part of our culture’s musical history. Yeah now when you think about how many videos you don't see on MTV and how we put earbuds in our phones and listen to either our personal playlist or whatever RADIO station is on our music service and that kind of makes you think maybe TECHNOLOGY killed the video star.


Now of course it's very hard to find someplace that will allow you to embed a video to share it anymore. It's a silly song and not an impressive video but it's a piece of history. So if you would like to experience a little bit of history here's a link to the video:

https://youtu.be/9ffoTMBlAOA

Friday By Request 2//15/19

This week I'm sending a big thank you to Lillian and Edna for their requests for today which came in at about the same time. Edna mentioned in comments that she'd love to read some more poetry and Lillian had asked on Facebook for a poem specifically about squirrels. I'm much too happy to oblige! Since there were two requests my furrry friends get two .poems.

A Child's Camping Buddies

Camping with our grandparents in the late off-season

Always caused Papa to require with the own reason

“Better know where the nearest hospital is

‘Cause one of these days they'll bite that kid'

After a summer full of campers they were practically domestic

‘I'd sit alone on a picnic table with my bag full of peanuts

They’d gather around me enjoying their treats

Some right out of my hand, I thought that was neat

When I wasn't at the playground or catching a fish

I was back at the picnic table granting their wish

And all of my grandfather’s fears were for naught

'Cause I never once needed a rabies shot

Squirrely On CAT TV

When there's not the boring "White Show” on CAT TV

"Squirrely" is my favorite show I watch with JD

Having a giant oak tree in our front yard

Guarantees kitty and me will be watching hard

I can't see the nest from the wheelchair when I'm out

But there's one squirrel on that tree constantly happy and stout

And he'll share the tree with some others to play

There seems to be a limit, they only come up half way

On a good day we see four, five or more

Scaling that tree, and looking to explore

JD wags her tail and paces the big front "screen"

I chuckle and call her "Mamas girl" as I watch that scene

When the day gets later and they finish their playing

She can often be found snuggled across my chest laying

JD falls asleep still wiggling it seems

Chasing the squirrels in the yard in her dreams.

Weekend Playlist February 10

I'll talk about it more in the next couple days but with the first weekend Sunday of this month being Super Bowl Sunday and a very special young lady’s birthday, Weekend Playlist last Sunday was not meant to be!

Standard Disclaimer: (stolen from Stephen Colbert with no shame) my musical taste ranges from a shocking “you like what?” to “don't judge me” and pretty much everything else in between. I have very eclectic musical taste and I'm proud of that.

Here are the last five songs that played on my iTunes library on shuffle today:

Butta Love, Next

Love Ain’t, Eli Young Band

It Doesn’t Matter, Allison Krauss

New, Daya

Count On Me Bruno Mars

Two children in a photo on this month scraplift challenge at GingerScraps made me think of the darling video for this and that song inspired me to use this exact photo in creating my layout

Heather took the picture in the scrapbook page. Possibly because she was the only one of us that was still awake enough to hold the camera still.

We had a few very busy months at work in both the Canton and Hamtramck offices. And it was a weekend in mid-May before things were going to get very busy again that we had no productions going on in either of our locations. I came up with the crazy idea that we should definitely leave work as soon as the building closed on Friday and not plan to be home until Sunday. My coworkers we're pretty much as insane as me and as tired and knowing that we were going to be even more tired on the weekends coming up. John didn't work with us but somehow my friends all just sort of”worked" together and whenever I had a crazy idea John was usually the first one to say “I’m in"

John had the vehicle that was big enough for all five of us. Tracy And Rich met us at closing time when Heather and I locked up the office on Friday night. We piled into John's car with our luggage for the weekend. The guys drove first leg, John at the wheel and Rich’s special brand of humor making sure staying awake with no problem. We stopped at a rest area about halfway there grabbing snacks and coffee and the girls woke up and I drove the rest with Heather and Tracy (we easily enjoyed three hour dinners talking for many years after that so it was easy keeping each other awake) while the guys got some sleep.

The street lights, for real!

When we got into Hershey we stopped for breakfast and I started my day with chocolate chip pancakes! After breakfast we stopped at the Hersey Lodge Hotel for our reservations were for the night on the outside chance that our room might be ready. It was and they asked us how many guests will be staying. We had reserved a double with a cot and they asked us how many guests were staying and we said five. They gave us five full size Hershey bars and the keys to our room. It’s not at all an inexpensive hotel, but 5 sharing a room makes it affordable.

Then we went to Hershey's World Of Chocolate where we played with anything chocolate interactive we saw, including the cart ride where you get to see how Hershey's chocolate is made including the ever important Hershey's kiss that started everything. When we got off the ride they handed everybody a full size Hershey bar. This city really was a Chocovore’s Dream!

And yes, there existed 5 of these

But it didn't stop with just the chocolate! Our next job was Indian Echo Caverns in nearby Hummelstown for some safe, tourist-style spelunking. As we got to the end of the cave we got to look up and see were ALL the bats sleep during the day. I thought that was totally cool and I believe Heather said it was totally not so cool.

The last thing of the day that we couldn't resist, is right next to Indian Echo Caverns is Indian Echo Mini Golf! I don't remember who won the golf game. I do remember that we were all getting hungry for something not sweet and were getting pretty tired by the end of the day.

The picture in this photo that Heather took was the other four of us after dinner at the Hershey Lodge going up to our room. If it looks like we're all about to follow totally asleep right where the pictures taken it's because it's true. But it was a great weekend.

We did finish off Sunday by going back to Hershey world and going to the outlet store to buy lots of chocolate to bring home. (When it's May, you want to make sure the chocolate is in a cooler or in the area where the air conditioning really kicks in the car) One thing we had to make sure we did at the gift shop was to get something REALLY nice for Tom. There had to be somebody from the full timers that had the mind the store on Saturday, for public access producers to work on their projects. There had to be a nice chocolate gift for the one of us who got left behind.

Nearly a quarter century later these people are still part of my family. I am one lucky woman to have collected such wonderful extra brothers and sisters in my journey so far!

I think in certain aspects copyright laws are a little overprotective. Videos, first off, ARE advertisements to begin with so, it's kind of stupid to say that you can't share an advertisement for free. But more and more that is beginning to happen. Remember when I couldn't show Elvis Presley singing It's Now Or Never? So what I'm leaving you with is the link to the official video. It is totally worth going to check out this video because it's adorable!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JNtAtGGNRU&list=RD4JNtAtGGNRU&start_radio=1&t=12

Friday By Request (8/4/06)

I was looking through some of my old journals, actually looking for this very poem for David. I actually keep not only my personal journals but copy of everything that I've posted, that I think is worth keeping, as well as everything I posted on a regular basis. David actually was the inspiration for the whole Friday By Request idea. I'd love to do that again.

I have my regular blog readers and I also advertise my blog on my Facebook page so I'm definitely inviting anyone who would like to participate in bringing back the occasional Friday By Request, to send me your challenges! Keeping in mind that this is a family-friendly blog, I don't think I've ever refused a request for Friday's yet.

So after that introduction, here is the very first ever Friday By Request, from 2006!

.

All right bad poetry fans! I was writing poems last night, actually one about the cats, when David challenged me. "Why don’t you write a poem about the groceries?” So I did and it gave me an idea. 

I will do Friday as “Friday By Request.” The first person to make a request before Wednesday will give me my challenge for Friday. It can be a topic for a poem, photo or the script for a TV or Radio ad. Try other ideas - challenge me! It can be for any topic or product, all I ask is that you remember this is a family blog. I have kids on my friends list!

HeySend me your suggestions with the subject “For Friday?” through the Yahoo 360 messages. If I don’t have any requests on any given week, I won’t do the Friday By Request blog. If I have more than one, I’ll  o the first one I get. If I don’t do yours, feel free to resubmit it any time after the Friday blog is posted. It might be serious from time to time, but more often than not it will be bad, funny or both!


Without futher ado, here is David’s request...

A Poem about Groceries

For David

Apples, oranges and plums 

The fruit bowl cries for purpose 

Lettuce, tomatoes and peppers 

The poor crisper has none

Burgers chops and chicken 

The freezer meat shelves empty 

Ice cream, veggies and entrées 

The top shelves barren too

Flour, sugar and coffee


The canisters sound so hollow 

Cereal, soup and pasta


The cupboard shelves collect dust

Dinner rolls, cookies and Pop Tarts 
The bread box, light as a feather 

Cinnamon, chili and garlic


The spice rack bottles are clear

Let’s go to the grocery store!

* send a message with the subject " Friday By Request" to chroniclesofnani@gmail.com, a private message on Facebook or just as a comment here. Out of respect for the writer and all readers, please try to refrain from suggestions about religion or politics.

A Short Post, But Oh, Thank You, Edna!!

First off, I haven't taken the opportunity to say thank you the wonderful Christmas gifts! Here is the view the table that sits right in front of me that I see all of the time when I'm sitting in my recliner:

It includes the beautiful dolly in the dress and hat I loved so much the first time I saw it on Miss Edna's Place. I'm also enjoying the last day today of January's Squirrley on my calendar. Thank you, Edna, the gifts were much appreciated. Including that pumpkin spice tea, OMG, WONDERFUL stuff!


But here I think is the extra big always living thank you on a night like this:

This is the look over the board I call my highchair table on my recliner. It's my very warm legs and toasty feet. Edna made this afghan for me a few years ago and every time we have a night like this I send hugs and kisses and a huge thank you out towards New England. Edna, you're the best and I feel proud and spoiled to call you my friend!

Weekend Playlist January 20

I know I always start the talk about my weekend playlist with the fact that my musical taste is about as eclectic as my tastes in pretty much everything. I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't like to limit myself to any one type of anything. Of course sometimes deciding between flavors of ice cream or what to have for dinner and the restaurant can you make me a bit of a pain. The truth is, and I know this is an expensive way to go, but ever since I was little kid I would rather order a few things off the appetizer menu than an actual dinner anyway. Of course as an adult unless I won the lottery on the way, I tend to try to stay away from appetizer menus as much as possible. LOL

So here are the last five songs from my music library on shuffle:

September Morn, Niel Diamond

You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone, Brooks & Dunn

Grenade, Bruno Mars

Brand new me, John Michael Montgomery

Kansas City, The New Basement Tapes

I did just notice that out of 1970 songs in my library (thank you Apple music subscription) Buddy Bat, which is the name of my iPad where I put my library on shuffle for my Weekend Playlist, sometimes get stuck in the favorites mode. Last night when I started this project it seemed like every third song was either Neil Diamond or Night Ranger. Yes, I do happen to have a lot both of those artists in my library. But I970 songs and the whole catalog is on shuffle. It sounds to me like a musical mood and sometimes I just wonder how smart our smart devices have become? My Apple devices talk to each other and I swear they know as much about me as I do and if I press the right buttons I can have a conversation with Siri for a while. I'm eventually going to have to talk about that Brooks & Dunn song because it really seems Buddy Bat wants me to. But I usually write my blog on Joey, my main computer, and Joey seems to still allow me to be in charge. 😉

This week's song is Kansas City by The New Basement Tapes. I can tell you that this is one of a bunch of song lyrics Bob Dylan wrote after a car accident… Whatever. I'm not a huge Bob Dylan fan but I just happen to really like this song. The lyrics of the song don't really speak to me but I enjoy the rhythm of the song the music and Kansas City makes me think about two things.

The first and only time I have ever flown into Kansas City I got to see my name on a sign with the NBC peacock on it because I was flying in for an interview with the NBC affiliate in Topeka, Kansas. The creative services director picked me up and we drove into downtown Topeka and he took me to lunch at a very nice upscale salad bar. I don't mean salad bar as in put your lettuce and all your stuff on your lettuce and take it back to your table. I mean salad bar as you look at all the different types of salads that they have choose the 3 or 4 that you would like and they put them on a plate for you. I was thinking to myself at that time, if I get this job I'm going to spend a lot of time in this restaurant. We enjoyed lunch and talked about the job and the Topeka area including the importance of how close the Kansas City Royals are.

There were a couple of things that didn't sit so well about living in Kansas. The gas prices were just a little higher than they were in Detroit and based on the value of my car it would probably cost about $600 a year for a license plate. My gas mileage wasn't that bad but for the price of the license plate tag? Yeesh! I was not giving up my only six years old Camaro to be a creative services producer in a small market. But we hadn't discussed salary yet it was still early in the day.

The next part of the day I worked very hard to keep myself from laughing, because the NBC station was smack dab in the middle of a cornfield. I mean you saw the building and the antenna and nothing but corn anyplace else. Once we walked into the station it was an incredibly modern building and in the production area it was totally state-of-the-art. It was better equipment than I worked with at the cable company and even at Tiger Stadium and it was very comparable to the production equipment where I was currently working as a video librarian. We did lots of talking about the type of commercial production that was done there. I got to meet a lot of potential coworkers they seemed like decent and very creative people. I even got to play with a couple of pieces of the equipment and recorded the voiceover while I was there. The job sounded great. The toys were fun. Downtown reminded me a lot of Royal Oak, Michigan, a city I absolutely adore. If the apartment rental in the area was decent and the pay was okay I was ready to start packing if they offered me the job.

Unfortunately the salary the job paid was a FEW THOUSAND dollars LESS then I was making as a video librarian and I lived in a suite in my parents home rent-free and paid just under $100 a year for tags for the plates on the Camaro. The CS director brought me back to the airport in Kansas City complementing my skills and raving about my voice and still trying to sell me on how great the area was. I did realize that that meant very good things about my standing in the finalists for this job. He even brought up that although it was more expensive for registration the gas prices were better than Detroit, which they word but I didn't say that, and the weather is better so it's better on the car. It still wasn't enough to make "I'm at creative services producer and a barista with a really great roommate who I met a day ago" very attractive. I sent an email later in the day of the next day explaining that I'd given it some thought and for financial reasons I just couldn't consider the position. But on the flight home I already needed extra peanuts because I felt so bad.

I do want to go back to Kansas City though! There are two things in Kansas City that I absolutely have to see. First off, of course, I want to see a baseball game there. The other thing that Kansas City has that no place else in the world does is Shuttlecocks! Note the capital S on Shuttlecocks. I'm not talking about stopping in a sporting goods store. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, built and installed four 18-foot badminton shuttlecocks on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, it can be done in one day but if I go to Kansas City I must see a Royals baseball game and Shuttlecocks. And I mean I've got to power wheel out there and get my picture taken just to show you how much taller than my wheelchair the shuttlecocks are.


And that's what Kansas City is to me and it's what this song makes me think about. You may get something completely different from the song. In fact it would be really weird if you didn't. It a nice song. Hope you enjoy the video.

This Year, With Work, It Will Finally Get Better

The title of today's blog is my mantra for 2019. The last few years have been torture in my brain. With the help of a couple of psychologists and some other important people who are helping me there will be some changes in my world this year, changes that will make things better.

I’ve felt like pretty crappy friend the last couple months. Getting to Christmas had been rough.. If you read a few entries back you can kind of get an idea of what the end of 2018 was like for me. For a little bit I kept up with my Sunday Weekend Playlist. But I'll be totally honest. I don't even remember a lot of November with the broken bones and the painkillers I was on so that I wouldn't feel how bad those broken bones hurt it's sort of left me with a very cloudy vision of what November was like. I remember not being happy that with the broken feet there was no way I could go to my dad's the weekend after Thanksgiving for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We were going to do mom’s traditional sage stuffing this year too.

I do remember one funny thing. Let me start by explaining that when we were teenagers we would take turns with everybody picking on one of us for the evening every now and then. Somehow I never got picked to be teased for the night I and I voiced concern about that. “You never pick on me. Don't you guys love me?" At that time I was told I hadn't done enough dumb things to be picked on for. I guess that was a compliment but I felt kind of bad that I got to laugh at everybody else and they didn't get a chance to laugh at me. Under the influence of some serious drugs I finally got my stupid statement that I'm reminded about over and over. In fact I love the fact that I’m laughed at for it so much I make sure everybody hears about it!

My nurse picked up one of the mini Hershey's Gold candy bars that was in the candy jar on the table next to my recliner and asked me what it was. I told her it's a Bruno Mars bar. Now I really do referred of those as Bruno Mars bars because his song 24K Magic is used in the advertising and I say with a smirk that they are “Caramel and sweet just like Bruno.” Well in my; drugged up state from the painkillers I told her “they’re Bruno Mars bars because they’re caramel, sweet and crunchy just like Bruno." Nobody, including me, has any idea what makes Bruno Mars crunchy. The candy bars are crunchy - they have pretzel pieces and peanuts in them. But what I said was Bruno Mars is caramel sweet and crunchy. Exactly what the definition of crunchy is I get picked on for a lot. And I have to admit as someone who doesn't get picked on a lot, I love it.

My Christmas shopping is usually done by December 1. This year I’m ashamed to say that the last of my gifts were bought after Christmas, but, though perhaps not as personal as in the past, I did get my gifts out. My brain may not have been working well but my heart was.

Stay tuned. I’ll share some of my favorite photos that made me smile as I was being tapered off the more mind-messing and addictive drugs in mid-December!