Tell Me Tuesday

Checking in for one of my favorite make ya think memes, Tell Me Tuesday with Suzanne at The Coloradolady. Since I’m joining in late, let’s dive right in to today’s question!

What is one thing that people say about you that is not true?

There are probably a lot of things, but the one that always amazes me is people say I’m outgoing. I am a forward, bigger than life entertainer when I’m with my friends or completely in a safe-zone, like at home, or in cyberspace, especially on my own blog, but for real? I’m actually on the shy side.

But even when I’ve taken the Meyers Briggs tests, I always come out ENTJ; Extrovert-iNtuitive- Thinker- Judgmental. Sometimes I’m ESTJ, Sensing rather than iNtutive, but always TJ and ALWAYS E. But really, I’m not an extrovert.

I don’t slip into a shell when someone approaches me, but I don’t approach people I don’t know or don’t know well. In business and school it’s different because it’s completely impractical to not be interactive, but socially, I’m a bit of a wallflower at a large gathering of people.

I think it’s a difference in interpretation. If I go to a baseball game alone, which I’ve only done once, but I enjoyed it, or when I go out to eat alone, that’s not a great courageous act of socializing. A baseball game, movie, even a museum is just enjoying an event. I tend not to talk as much when I’m alone. Again, if someone approaches me and strikes up conversation I don’t ignore them, but when I’m talking to that stranger, I have stepped out of my comfort zone to do it! And as for eating out alone, I bring a book. That’s not outgoing and social; it’s so private I don’t even want anyone I know with me.

So, I am not painfully shy, but I’m not the person who walks into a room of strangers and starts introducing myself. When I’m with people with whom I’m comfortable, I’m much more comfortable with my surroundings. I’m a people person. The thing is, those who call me outgoing, have just never seen me alone.

Tell Me Tuesday

It was a little less crazy today, so better late than not at all, I get to join Suzanne at the Coloradolady for Tell Me Tuesday! Here’s today’s question:

What is the best part of being you?

I did a musical photobook that was shown at my 40th birthday party. I did it just like I’d do a video for someone else with pictures from babyhood forward and appropriate music choices for different eras of my life. I was pretty pleased with it, lots of detail but I know the editor. The twist is that while videos of this sort usually have a happy birthday message at the end, since this one was done BY the birthday girl instead of for her, the final message, which made me cry editing it, watching it and still makes me cry if I watch the video or just look at the graphic, which essentially thanked everyone there for making my world one worth living in.

And that’s the best part of being me. I have wonderful people. I’m an optimist and a happy person because I know I can depend on the people who are really important, really mine. I’m in the unenviable position of being able to know how truly blessed I am. Good friends will still call you to talk when you are pretty much wheelchair bound. Great friends will still spend time with you when you are someplace together. The friends beyond measure call you and invite you to do all the things you’ve always done together, even knowing that they’ll need to help you get the wheelchair out and they’ll be the ones doing any lifting. I have so many of the latter.

I’ve read horror stories from people with my disease, about people who don’t understand who say “get some more sleep if you’re tired” or the classic “but you don’t look sick.” I haven’t heard those things. My family of friends and relatives don’t question, they learn. They ask to know what they can help with, what to expect and they adapt just as I did. I can’t put into words how much that helps.

So the beautiful people who made my world one to celebrate living in for so many years, still do. That truly is the best part of being me.

Checking Back In!

I know, I know, I’m a slacker this week, but really, I’m only a blog slacker! I’m been doing lots of work in the future woman cave this week, although I may be taking a break tomorrow. I’m having some tricky numbness in my right leg. It happens sometimes. I’ve mentioned before that it’s one of those warnings that I’m over doing things a little. I’m just impatient. I want things done faster than I’m capable of doing them. –sigh— I just have to learn to live with me! :)

I need to do some moving and photographing with my mugs. I have the disadvantage of being shorter than most of the mugs I haven’t done on my rack. Also the mug rack only holds about half of my mugs. I’m going to need to get David to help take down mugs on top, they need cleaned or dusted anyway. I’ll photograph them all before they are out back! If you are just aching for the memories attached to collectables, may I suggest, no, encourage you to visit Jennifer at Just Another Day for Shot Tales on Sunday. Same concept as the Mug Shot, but Jennifer’s collection is shot glasses. It’s a cool feature one her blog! Of course, you can just follow us both and get all the fun stories!

I didn’t do Tell Me Tuesday last week. The prompt was about something from your childhood you still have. I realized I have things from my mother’s childhood and things from Tori’s and Rina’s childhood, but not a lot from my own childhood! Now I suppose the one thing I was given as a child that I still cherish could be a lesson or a memory, but I wasn’t thinking that way last week. It’s probably because in going through all of my boxes of things, I was focused on the things. I had just found a card that my Mom made for Grandma when she was little; we’re talking construction paper, paste and crayons. It held up pretty well. As the White Tornado goes on and I get to the finish where I am adding a couple things to my cedar chest, that’s when I’ll discover something special that I kept and want to talk about. But then I’ll be able to take a picture and tell more anyway. But let’s move on past what I didn’t say last week to what I will say today!



Tell Me Tuesday

This week’s Prompt is

I’d be lost without my ___________.

Hmm… There are lots of things I’d be lost without. My glasses, Kindle, purse and as much as I hate it, I’d be lost without my phone. I’d be lost without my Gilenya…no, I’d be fatigued to the point of falling asleep with my head in dinner, perfectly aware that it was dinner I’d been sleeping in when I awoke, without my Gilenya.; not lost, just frustrated. Of all my things, I am quite lost without my wedding ring.

A couple years ago, David and I were going to Grandma’s for a couple of nights. We were leaving late Saturday morning after brunch. We’d planned to stop for brunch on the way out of town. While we were at the restaurant waiting for our orders, I looked at my left hand. No ring!

I gasped and told David we had to stop back at the house. He asked why and I told him that when I had done some dishes and cleaning in the kitchen that morning, I took my ring off and out it in the ¼ cup measuring cup by the sink.

David said it would still be there when we got home, but I didn’t want to leave for the weekend without it. I didn’t want to visit my Grandma without my ring. He was a little flustered with how panicky I was getting and we stopped to get my ring.

It seems silly. The ring is a symbol, not the marriage. It’s not like our relationship is on hold if I’m not wearing it. Still, most days it’s the only piece of jewelry I have on. And it’s an important symbol to me.

Tell Me Tuesday

On Tuesdays I join Suzanne at The Coloradolady for some brain exercise with thought provoking prompts for Tell Me Tuesday. Here is today’s prompt:

What should you avoid to improve your life?

I think my White Tornado project is all about avoiding clutter, which neither David nor I do well. I have a gazillion reasons to avoid clutter, the most obvious is that with clutter comes crowding and running things over with the walker or just plain tripping and falling. In a very tangible way, clutter should be a number one enemy to me. But clutter is a friend and foe from way back.


“If you kept things neater, I wouldn’t have to throw the baseball cards away in the winter. You’ll get more next year.” She even threw my Pete Rose and Al Kaline cards away and those ones were in my jewelry box. The clutter is hereditary. Mom got it from Grandma, but Grandma didn’t collect baseball cards as a kid. Mom threw away Mark Fidrych’s rookie card but Grandma threw away Al Kaline’s rookie card! It’s a cycle of abuse I say!

I paid $8 as an adult to replace one of the Pete Rose cards I’d had as a kid. The same time I bought the Pete Rose, Mom bid on an Al Kaline card that was on an auction style board at the card shop. At the end of the week, she paid $25 to replace that childhood hero. I’d have bid on the Kaline too, but I wasn’t going to bid against my own mother and I could not have swallowed the eventual sticker on it! Today those two cards flank the top of my chest of drawers in the bedroom in thick Lucite protectors.

But you see? Clutter cost me $8 as an adult for something that was one in a pack of 20 for 15 cents when I had it originally. Those cards won’t be for sale again until my estate sale.

As a kid, I saw a movie where someone woke up under a blanket and a pile of papers to answer the phone. His home was total clutter and he was renowned for his success in the movie. I thought that would be me when I grew up. No one would ever tell me to clean my room or throw away my baseball cards because I was successful. But that was a movie and I didn’t grow up to be a movie.

As a teenager, my room was often incredibly cluttered. It was also often neat organized and pristine. I found that a little clutter was good for creativity, but when my room got too cluttered, my mind got cluttered. When the clutter was too much for my usually very organized brain, I’d stop and clean. I pulled all-nighters organizing my room and moving furniture. I think it was subconscious Feng Shui. The point is cleaning the room cleared my mind, moving furniture inspired new ideas.

That’s what I need right now, the White Tornado. This is the first time it’s had a name, but not the first time it’s come to my world! At 46 and physically challenged, I can’t do it as fast as I could at 16, but it has the same effect. While working in the woman cave today, I took a couple short breaks and just sat in front of the bathroom vanity.  It was like a Zen garden.

My life will improve when I get rid of and avoid too much return of clutter. Right now, I need to avoid living in my bathroom!

My Zen Garden

(The souvenir popcorn helmets are just placeholders until I get the proper baskets.)

Happy Spring 1st

Good morning Cyberpals! Happy Spring!

The high temperature yesterday was 81 degrees here, blowing the old record away by 3 degrees. We’re forecasted for two more days in the low to mid 80s…in MARCH! I’m over the flower sadness now and ready to just enjoy the warmth! Mid 80’s is the temperature in my fantasy paradise.


Global Climate Change. Hmm… I’m still not sold on cars and aerosol cans being to blame for the weather, not yet. Climate goes in cycles and just 2 years of bizarre weather doesn’t mean a permanent change. Even if warmer weather and more violent storms become the norm, I’m not so sure it’s all our fault. True that we haven’t done much to slow it down and we really need to be more ecologically conscious, but we weren’t here with our pollutants during the time of the great glaciers. Where I’m sitting right now used to be a solid piece of ice all year round. The climate does naturally change in big ways, always has. I suppose it would have been an alarming thing to be sitting happily on my glacier and suddenly the cable goes out because there is water in my modem from the glacier melting. I’m just sayin’. It could be the process of major global climate change that’s happened before. Still, like I said, we haven’t helped it slow down the process and conservation is a great idea. Major climate change is slow. The glaciers didn’t melt overnight and I doubt any of us will be fried to a crisp. But we need to do what we can to slow the process so there will be more future generations before they all have to swelter in parkas on an average Ohio 110 degree day in January because the hole in the ozone has made sunscreen ineffective.

Just suggesting to use reusable shopping bags and save the water in a jug while it’s heating up to make spaghetti in the kitchen, water the house plants or make coffee. We love our eco-ghetti! And recycle, recycle, recycle!

I have a really cool barn to share with you and liking to Tricia’s Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily.

I saw this farm when David and I took a day trip last Sunday, March 11. It’s a beautiful farm, even with the dry remains of the corn field and look at the barn!

It’s on Ohio 423 between Marion and Waldo. I love the unusual color and the fact that the barn and house match!

This week’s prompt from Suzanne at The Coloradolady for Tell Me Tuesday at first glance should be easy for me.

What is the best part of your average day?

As an optimist, “the best” should be easy!

But, as an optimist the first thing I thought when I contemplated the question was, “just one?”

I could say “waking up,” and the best part of waking up is that Folders is NOT in my cup. And then I guess I could say the best part of any day is when I can paraphrase advertising and slam Folders in one sentence!

The thing is that right now I don’t have average days. I mean, I’m not employed. I clean and organize, write a sponsored post when there is one available. That’s my working day. The best parts are when I discover treasures in my boxes form relatives’ estates or when I rediscover something we thought we’d lost. There have been a couple of those.

I could also say the best part is lunchtime when I relax, read a few blogs and usually experiment with something in the kitchen, whether it’s the meal or a new drink concoction.


Then there’s later in the afternoon when Kaline visits me wherever in the house I am just for some attention. It's even better just before David comes home when they both visit me although that’s in part because it's “Fresh Kibble” time.

But I think truly the best time of the average day for me is when David comes home. It’s the “Honey I’m home” kiss I starting missing as soon as the warmth of the “goodbye” kiss fades. I like my alone time during my breaks during the day and Heaven knows that it’s hard to accomplish any cleaning or organizing if there’s anyone else with me, but it’s when my partner in life is home again and I can share what I’ve accomplished during the day with him that I can really say it’s been a good day.

Wow…I’ve been totally consumed by Donna Reedishness, huh? I wonder what Donna Reed would have blogged about?

Putting my apron back on…


Join us for Tell Me Tuesday for a prompt that makes you think a little. You might surprise yourself!

Tell Me Tuesday Evening

Posting late today because I’ve been non-computer busy!

What a gorgeous, sunny day it’s been! After rain that knocked out power for a while last night, it was brilliantly sunny and warm. David says warm. I say warmer. 67 is very nice, but it doesn’t get to "warm" before 75!


I started working on the table in our dining room where the radio/CD player and all the CDs are. Some serious need of a White Tornado there. For audio news in the house, I just turn on the TV and I usually get my news reading the local paper online and the various news sources that Google links to. I listen to my playlist online and seldom use that radio except to listen to the Christmas station during the holidays. I also found out last November that the CD player in it no longer works. So the radio and a few stacks of CDs and old phone books were sitting on the table where the radio goes, all covered in dust and cat hair. (Cough, cough)

I want to get the CDs from all over the house collected to match boxes and really to decide which ones can go the a used CD retailer for cash or trade. What we really need is a couple of MP3 players. That radio in the dining room has a connection for an auxiliary input. So a little MP3 player can sit right on top of the CD compartment and take up a lot less room than all the CDs on the bottom shelf of the table where they hide and push out the phone books. I put a 2009 phone book in the recycle box this afternoon! The girls loved me cleaning out the area where the radio is because their carpeted play house is there too and I found so many mousies! One thing the White Tornado project is doing for them is turning the place into a giant cat toy box.

So now, I feel a little bit accomplished for the day, but not enough. I have a couple dining room things for which I need David’s superior strength. But I’m a little gravelly-throated from dusting. Also, how dumb is someone who showers, dresses in dark pants and then does the dusting? I now have dusty brown leggings.

Well, now it’s time for Dusty’s, I mean Nani’s, Tuesday stuff

Here is this week’s prompt for Tell Me Tuesday:

What is the one lie you keep telling yourself each and every day??

I’m really not a good liar, even to myself. When I lie, even exaggerate, to myself I will say, out loud, “Who are you kidding?”

I guess the one lie I’ve used is that profanity helps dispel pain, or at least that it releases negative energy so you can refocus. I read it online somewhere and I decided I’d try it. I don’t try things on other people and I don’t try things that might be dangerous, but if it won’t harm anyone, I’ll try things that sound like a “could be.”

Now, profanity therapy was a totally new idea for me. As a rule I don’t use profanity and although I know the words and their meanings, I didn’t really know where to put them in a sentence, still don’t. So one frustrated day I experienced some pain in my lower pack while trying to move something and I tried it. I was home alone so I screeched the expletives loud. They didn’t make sense because all I did was say a bunch of them. I felt good for having gotten the energy out, but ashamed for sounding so stupid. I’ve always considered, and my nieces were raised knowing, that profanity was for people who couldn’t use English. I did include the exception that when people are in pain or scared they sometimes get temporarily stupid, but using profanity all the time in relaxed speech was just plain dumb. But they were in no way to accept the definition from anyone who called it “grownup words.” That was the dumbest thing I’d ever herd said to a child. (“Boy I can’t wait until I’m BIG so I can say…” come on!)

What I did find was it’s not the profanity that dispels the negative energy, it’s the yell. Much like a weightlifter grunts when he or she lifts the barbell. So I’ve mostly replaced the profanity with grunts and growls. I sound like a cave-woman, but it helps get the job done. David is really the only other soul who’s heard my attempt at profanity therapy. By nature I just don’t use those words around other people. I couldn’t help but think it was fair if they judged me for it.

There is a little humor in what David has heard.  I use it very awkwardly and well, my personality and inflection, I sound like an unhappy cheerleader yelling the cheers that are banned. “Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep-beep” begged to be followed by “score for the other team sucks, sucks, sucks!” It's not really a good career choice for me. Banned cheers and a short skirt in a wheelchair? Yeah, they wouldn’t even let me in the stadium. I’ll stick to grunts and growls

And with that confession, the lie to myself will never fly again! Thank you!

Join Suzanne for Tell Me Tuesdays at The Coloradolady.

“Screwper Tuesday,” Oh Boy!

(Beware of Political Rant! If you'd like the calmer, gentler Nani, please scroll down to Tell Me Tuesday!)

It’s been an odd day for me schedule wise. David is working late because of the Ohio Primary Election. We did some other errands and voted before he left for work..

Before today I only voted in one primary election in my voting life. It was a Republican Primary in 1992. I lived in a moderately conservative district and was served well by Republican William Broomfield for whom I voted when he was on the ballot every time since I was able to vote in 1984. He retired after 1992.  There were three candidates to represent our district in that primary, 2 of them were excellent choices to represent us, conservative on the moderate side, like Broomfield was, and one candidate who was too conservative for the values of our area. Most of the district agreed that the other two candidates were better qualified, but the problem with 2 equal candidates and one lesser one is the 2 better candidates split the majority and the lesser candidate won by a plurality. I don’t remember the other candidates’ names from 20 years ago, but I do remember that Joe Knollenberg won the congressional seat in November. The Democrats basically put in a throw away candidate in the district we were in because for years Broomfield was unbeatable and we were considered “Republican Territory” but that year, a good moderate Democrat could have won that seat. Instead Knollenberg won pretty much by default.

This year in Ohio, I voted in the Democrat Primary. Due to Republicans in Columbus peeing on rocks, that is redistricting that happens in any state when the capitol changes parties, we’ve lost representation by a great member of congress, Marcy Kaptur, and she is in danger of losing a seat all together as they have combined parts of Toledo and Cleveland into the same district. Um, it’s cramming the city areas together to push out the Democratic representatives. Oh, I know the Democrats do it too, but I think redistricting is something that should be done after the Census IF necessary because of population growth or movement. It’s cheating, cheating the people for the good of the party; again. If redistricting is done to cram the “other party” together so they are less represented, then the entire state is not represented. It’s electing officials from different areas that gives an honest representation of the political needs and wants of the state. My opinion and I’m open to factual data that says I’m wrong, but in a state with a lot of acreage of farms and maybe 4 or 5 cities of notable population size, those cities should not be sharing congressional districts. We have 18 representatives and if one represents 3 times the people of any 2 others combined, it’s very “special” math!

Anyway, we didn’t even make it into the district that Marcy is in. I guess the Republicans in Columbus consider our neighborhood to be a “good neighborhood.” I feel dirty. I don’t want any political party to call me “good” or “equal.” That’s an insult!

Anyway, that’s my take on Screwper Tuesday. I didn’t want to vote in the Republican Primary at all. I don’t care who they choose from the nuts wanting to be President, I won’t vote for them. They frighten me. I truly don’t think the incumbent could harm the country more than the Right’s lunatic fringe candidates could devastate it given the opportunity. Give me two decent and qualified candidates who are respectful to each other. I miss the days of respect for your opponent and most importantly, for the people.

I’m not a loony left liberal. Loony Left Liberals would probably stone me for my opinions on crime and punishment. Some moderate conservatives might help them. I’m an American, moderate; little left and little right. Help people, but expect something in return from them for the help and don’t spend everything we have to do it. If the elected officials spent a little time using their brains and consciences, they might actually be PROgress instead of its opposite. And by conscience I mean that they are there to serve EVERYONE they represent and not just their party, themselves, or only the people who voted for them, consider what is in the best interest of the people not the party or the next election when they vote. If the country, and each state, is in a better political place and things have improved going into the next election, the run for an incumbent will be a lot easier, regardless of any single issue or what they thought of it. It helps to be part of a successful whole instead of a “winning” part of a giant bickering failure.


Stepping down from soapbox…or I guess wheeling down the soapbox’s ramp? I couldn’t have stood and said what I wrote with any vigor for as long as it took to write it.



So, Super Tuesday made it just a weird day. Aside from voting, it feels like Saturday. But it’s not Saturday. It’s Tuesday. And Tuesday is Tell Me Tuesday at The Coloradolady!






Today’s prompt from Suzanne is this:

Is it out of reach? Or have you just not stretched yourself far enough?

Boy, after a political rant…


“It.” What is “it.?”

Well, to me “it” is what I want. As simple as a coffee cup from the top shelf or as complicated as reorganizing my entire house, I have to want “it” to stretch enough to have “it.”

Sometimes it’s a simple stretch, I use tongs to grab things off the top shelf, a trick Grandma taught me. Sometimes I think ahead and ask David to get a can of soup off the top shelf for me before he goes to work. But my stubborn side doesn’t often let me remember to do that. Weight Watchers totals say I’m NOT starving!

As far as reorganizing the house, that’s coming along. It means I do a little more every day, a slow stretch. That tests my patience with myself, but I’m doing well with that too.

In the fall, I want to start job hunting again. I’d love to find a legitimate work from home job. I'd love something where my mental and creative skills work and my mobility isn’t an issue.  I'll stretch into something new and I'm going to have to sell myself as a candidate and possibly ask a company to stretch their opinions of what accessibility means.  Truck driver is pretty much out of the question. Not because they don’t have semis with hand controls or elevators to get me up to the cab. I’m just not fond of driving and the hours really kind of suck for a married person. I totally tip my hat to the men and women who do that essential logistics job! It takes knowledge and skills to do well that are seldom appreciated.

I think I’m resourceful enough to pretty much have anything I want. I mean that. I think everyone has that quality. Some people may have bigger “its” than others, but the instinct is to make something happen if you really want it to. And there’s the point. How bad do you want “it?” The cups are on the top shelf, but I’ve never wanted a cup of coffee and not had it. I really want the coffee. I let that small thing be proof to myself that I can always have something if I truly want it. So maybe more that are you stretching enough, the question is: Do you want it bad enough to stretch for it?

Come join us for Tell Me Tuesday at The Coloradolady!

Hey, Where’d The Sun Go?

I did a few things today, but I mostly rested and drank lots of fluids. But the sore throat and stuffiness still lingers. I have a cup of Gypsy Cold Care tea. It tastes good and it’s very soothing. I crawled up on the bed with a blanket and tread for a while after I showered this morning. I read a few blogs, did a scrapbook page and recently fed the kitty kids. I feel like a bum because I really had planned on doing more White Tornado upstairs today. Bleh.

Is this a rare glimpse into my dark side? Well, grouchy me mutters to the surface when I’m not feeling well. I won’t say “sick,” not yet. I need to keep drinking tea and broth. I’m out of coke, which is my usual throat remedy when it’s cold or allergies. I use regular coke and heat a cup in the microwave for 60 seconds. I know that sounds weird, but it works for me, the sweet warm and a massaging tickle of warm bubbles feels great. In a bit I’m going to see if the remedy works the same with Diet Coke with Splenda. I’m not big on WW medicinal points. David’s bringing me home comfort pretzels. That will work better for me!

My pamper-my-stuffy-self day made me late for Tell Me Tuesday! But it’s still Tuesday, even if it’s already dark!

So here is the prompt for today:

What three words would you use to describe the last three months of your life?

At the end of the next three months, what three words do you hope to be able to use to describe your life at that point?

I’ve been taking the wonderful medication that’s made me feel like my old self for three months now, so my there words would be vibrant, ambitious and relieved.

Had you asked me that same question 3 months ago, it would have been fatigued, frustrated and scared.

Three months from now, in May, when I’ll be making purchases and having furniture assembled.  I want to be happy, industrious and satisfied in a better organized and more accessible home!

I can’t encourage enough to come join us for Tell Me Tuesday hosted by Suzanne at The Coloradolady! It’s thought-provoking and may just introduce you to a part of yourself you haven’t really gotten to know!

Everything

I’m posting later than usual today, so that means all of my Tuesday stuff gets to share a blog entry!

I have started going through boxes and piles in what will be the woman cave today. The woman cave will be in the room that used to be “the office” when David and I were both on the older desktop computers. David’s actual desk is in the basement. It needed brought upstairs, but it was not a job he could do on his own, so his “desk” was the door to the room on top of two stacks of totes he had old clothes in. When I first moved in, my Mac and I were in the corner next to the door-desk on my card table. Later my desk moved in when my furniture was moved from Michigan. It was cozy, but it worked.

What made it cozier was that my banker boxes, all of my office and craft supplies from Michigan, lined the wall opposite the door-knob desk waiting for shelving units to be assembled. I bought 2 shelving units to start. One I assembled and put in the “train room,” which was the guest room, but all of David’s model railroad stuff lived there. That shelf freed all my photo albums and scrapbooks from boxes and gave them someplace to live. Assembling the other shelf for the office had to be done in a particular order. David’s real desk had to come upstairs and be switched out for the door knob desk to make enough room to assemble the shelves and move the banker boxes to place the unit. That unit is the one in the kitchen annex now and I still need more units! LOL

But where claiming the room as my woman cave becomes more of a challenge is that since the laptops moved in and allowed the desktops to catch some dust, Grandma passed and a half year was spent cleaning out her house and settling her estate, that put more boxes added to the old office which became a storage room, my MS symptoms blossomed and took a year of running around from doctor to doctor to figure out what that was and start to treat it and the office/storage room sat untouched. Last year, just before Christmas we heard a loud boom coming from upstairs. Something fell. After locating both cats to make sure they were okay, David went upstairs. He came back and told me “you don’t want to look at it.” After years of supporting the desktop computer and the peripheral supplies and accessories, one of the clothing totes holding it all up gave up. It cracked, collapsed and slid the entire contents of the door top onto the floor blocking passage to my desk! Miraculously, nothing, except the one tote, was broken. Even a glass candy dish survived the fall!

So, as I embark on sorting my way back into the room, because right now I couldn’t access the Mac if I really needed to, I have those original banker boxes of supplies, the rest of the boxes from Grandma’s and everything that fell off the doorknob desk. I did take some before photos. I’ll want to scrap this whole thing after I finish and earn my superwoman cape!

As of this morning I have access to the room’s closet again. I’ve also decided where the shelving unit for the M&Ms collectibles will go. Eye on the prize, I can’t wait until that collection can be displayed again!

Tell Me Tuesday

Once again this week, I’m joining Suzanne at The Coloradolady for Tell Me Tuesday. This one was harder to think about than write about! This week’s prompt:

What is the most unique thing you own?

First off as people are all unique, I think every collection is unique. I could say my mug collection because although it’s not unique to collect mugs, the specific mugs in that collection are unique to anyone else’s collection. I have other things that are probably pretty common, but the story behind them is unique. So I’m going to show you one of my very special and unique because of the story things.

I just unwrapped this from one of my one storage boxes:

Anchor Hocking Apple Jar

These jars were a promotion at Dunkin Donuts. I did some looking to see if I could get help to remember the year, but it seems the apple jar is pretty unique after all! I guess that’s not super surprising. When I started unwrapping it, I remembered what it was and the fun story that goes with it, and I said a little prayer that it wasn’t broken. The glass is thin and it has a valuable and fragile feel when you pick it up. Perhaps they are unique, or at least rare to still exist.

It was a Christmas promotion that Anchor Hocking co-oped with Dunkin Donuts in the 80’s. In going through my memory banks, I think the three years Anchor Hocking and Dunkin Donuts did the glass canisters were 1984, 85 and 86. I own all three canisters and the apple was the first one. I think I remember that it was before I was 18 and that was part of the tease in the story.

As I’ve credited many times before, Dunkin Donuts was and still is the place where I hang out with my friends in Novi, Michigan. Anita worked the counters in the evenings during the week then. Her kids are my age, so she and Mom were peers and Mom was in on the joke too.

When the posters were up all over the store promoting the deal for Christmas that you could purchase an Anchor Hocking Apple Jar filled with Dunkin Munchkins, I was intrigued. I thought the jar was really cool, but a little pricier than my part time job could afford after gas and gifts for others. I asked Anita “What’s Anchor Hocking was and what do you do with the jar to help you anchor hock?”

I did know that Anchor Hocking was the brand. I didn’t know why it was a big deal that it was an Anchor Hocking jar. But, as was natural for me at the time, and still is, I was being silly. Anita joined in.

Addressing my Mom, “you never had 'the talk?'”

I realized they were ganging up on me. Scotty and John were there too and they just loved it when I got zapped. So I asked Anita if she was going to tell me what Anchor Hocking is and how one anchor hocks.

She told me, “You’ll find out on your wedding night.”

Our collective joke that Christmas was anchor hocking the verb! I’ve been married for three years and I still don’t know how to anchor hock!


Now, if you don’t think my apple jar is unique, please leave a comment telling me how to anchor hock!

Join us to tell us about your most unique things at Tell Me Tuesday at The Coloradolady!

Barn Charm

Morenci, Michigan

I got this green-roofed barn on March 26, 2006, while railfanning in the Motherland.

See more fabulous barns at Tricia’s Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily.

Take A Break

It’s definitely break time. I can tell you that I now know the cake-pop maker Dave, Laura and the girls gave me for Christmas works! I don’t have any sticks, so I didn’t make cake pops; I made cake bites or cake balls, 2-1/2 dozen chocolate! I am troubled because they’re drying after I put chocolate glaze on them. I think I added too much whipping cream. They’re not setting. But, maybe I’m just being impatient. I’m going to take a break for right now and then go shower. The maker cooks faster than baking them, but it’s MES-SY! I have the cake pop maker cooled and cleaned off, the dishes done and all the cake batter and glaze off the counters. Thus why I need the break before I hit the shower! I’m kinda full too. I chocolate glazed a few strawberries and had a bunch of the leftover strawbs for lunch. I also tried two of the cake balls and a pretzel bagel. As lunches go, it’s kinda shy in the milk and protein department. Well, I did say the glaze wasn’t setting because there was too much milk. That counts for something, right?


I want to mention that I am honored to have received 2 blog awards from Tere on her blog, Tere’s World. I follow two of her blogs and enjoy reading them. She uses her blogs to express, share and vent, like many of us. I have a space that I present this year’s awards on the bottom of the blog, my trophy case if you will. I’ll be doing the “things about me” part and awarding these awards, probably tomorrow, when I get back to my normal routine.


Right now, while I still have time for it to be Tuesday, I have some Nani facts to Tell!

The question for Tell Me Tuesday at Suzanne’s The Coloradolady is:

What songs bring you back to really great moments in your life?

There are a few that paint pictures in my mind that make me smile.

Age of Aquarius – This is probably my oldest memory with a song attached. I vividly remember a snippet of this song coming on the radio while I was playing under the kitchen table while Mom was washing dishes after lunch. Mom was humming along with the song and I remember the deejay introducing the song as a current popular song. The 5th Dimension’s version came out in the spring of 1969, so I was a few month away from turning 3. Mom said I played under the kitchen table when Mom was in there often when I was little. I only actually remember that one time.


Your Own Special Way – This is David’s favorite love song and he played it for me on Valentine’s Day 2005, our first. We slow danced in his kitchen after dinner. I told him just yesterday that dance was the moment when I really realized that if it was up to me, he’d be in my world the rest of my life. (SO glad he felt the same way about me!)


Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off – The version with both Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers singing was a song Tori and Rina loved when they were little. I had a copy from the Shall We Dance soundtrack. They loved the song and even watched the movie with me, but they preferred color movies. When they made CDs of their favorites to play in Papa’s car, both CDs had this one. It makes me think of when they were little.


Sweet Caroline – This one makes me think of when I was little! This Neil Diamond classic was the first grown up song I knew all the words to and the first 45 RPM record that wasn’t a kids’ record that I owned. I think I had to keep my room clean for a week to earn it, but the record was played a LOT!



I Feel The Earth Move, Carole King – This was the song we danced to in my first year jazz class at the spring recital. It was my second year dancing, but this song is the one that flashes the hot pink leotard with the star and fringe. It always makes me smile.

Tell us about those songs that make you remember and smile! Join Tell Me Tuesday at The Coloradolady!

I'll Be Brief

It's time for Tell Me Tuesday!

Are ya wondering what the prompt is?  Will Nani write an even longer "term paper" with this week's prompt?  Or, will I write the little bit shorter one I thought I might someday.  Well, this week's question was NOT 'What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?"  I keep hoping.

But here's this week's prompt:

I need to practice_____________more often. 

Hold getting that refill!

I need to practice brevity more often.

Done!

Be sure to check out the variations on this theme at The Coloradolady, Meet Me Tuesdays.

Too, Too Much

I must start this post with a fair warning – writing from a prompt can definitely take on a life of its own when you set hands to keyboard. My first thought today was I was going to write a shorter post than last Tuesday. It’s about the same. Also, I don’t often write about my religious views, although I’d imagine you can probably figure them out from my writing. I think religion is personal and everyone should practice their beliefs in the way that satisfies their own spiritual needs.


I don’t mean to offend, but if you are easily offended in discussions about religion, I won’t be offended if you don’t read my post.

Today's prompt:

What is there too much of in the world???

There is too much hate disguised as holy.

Let me tell a story from school. I went to Catholic school for the first 4 years of grade school. I had a lovely woman who I adored for my first grade teacher and I’d decided that I wanted to be a nun when I grew up because I wanted to be as wonderful a person as Sister Ann. After making that decision before first grade was over, I decided at only 6 years old that there was no better time than the present to start studying what I needed to know to be a good nun.

That summer is where I took off the blindfold that I really needed to keep on for my chosen vocation. But I was almost seven. What did I know about career planning?

Since I was learning all about the way Catholics worship in school, I wanted to know more about other religions. If I was going to be a kind and gentle nun, I had to understand and respect everyone’s religion. I went to Summer Bible School at the Baptist church around the corner from home and at the Lutheran church with my Aunt Judy, where she taught my age group. I found out that the lessons about Jesus and loving people were pretty much the same as I learned in school. They sang more at the Baptist church and they did more crafts at the Lutheran church. Maybe that was because my Aunt is a crafter and she was teaching my class, but I remembered that I did more crafts at Bible School at the Lutheran church. Still the messages were the same and the Bible the same and the love shared was the same. In fact, the only thing I really knew as different in other religions is that they said the prayer we said a little later as the last line of “Our Father.”

And so, I went to Summer Bible school every summer in between school years at Catholic School. I was still planning to be a nun and was enjoying the friends I’d made at Bible School, getting more involved with the youth group’s “Terrific Tuesdays” field trips with the Baptist Church. I still remember the hymns and songs we sang on the bus and hayrides. I was having fun, but I knew I was also learning important things to make me a good nun.

Well, my awakening was in fourth grade religion class. I was 9 years old now and planning more than ever to answer God’s calling for me. One day, in about the middle of the school year, we were discussing line by line what one of the prayers we say in church means. We got to a line that Sister Mary Ann told us meant that ”there is only one church, the Catholic church.” I remember, so clear in my mind what I said, what she answered and my reply. I remember being mad.

I raised my hand and asked, “What about the people at other churches, like Baptist?”

“God will forgive them.”

“For-give-them-for-WHAT?”


I kinda realized that day that I had a better chance of hoisting the Stanley Cup as the first woman in the NHL, my backup plan if the nun thing didn’t work out, than I did of being a good Catholic nun. My Mom tried to explain that Sister was mistaken, that catholic with a small c, like it is in the prayer, mean all Christians, not just Catholic Christians. Well, then I asked about the friend on my bowling team who was Jewish. She did her best to try to answer my questions in a way that wouldn’t lead to more questions and an angrier child.

As an adult, I consider myself a Unitarian Universalist with a Christian belief foundation. I’ve studied many religions and have a reference selection of many holy books, although the white padded-cover book with the gold lined pages that I keep in the bedroom is a Bible.

I believe in tolerance as my first religious conviction because I refuse to believe, even for a moment, that God is so limited that he only shares himself with any particular one group of people and everyone else is wrong. It’s that Bible that says with God all things are possible, He is all things to all people. Am I really qualified to add “except” to the text?

But a lot of “leaders” do just that. I’m not talking about extremists who use religion when they apparently don’t believe it to get people to bomb buildings with the promise of “virgins in the afterlife” for killing Americans or “a place in Heaven” for killing doctors at a clinic that does abortions, although that’s extreme hate thinly disguised as holy. I’m talking about religious prejudice. The belief that one religion is more right than another to the point of considering the other religions wrong. Whether you believe that you need to “stay away” from someone because they believe differently or just that they’ll “be forgiven” for not being you, isn’t that prejudice? Just like we hear about “gateway drugs,” prejudice a gateway belief for hate and too many times that prejudice starts in a church.

I Forget…

(This one ended up being a little long, so top off 
your favorite afternoon beverage before reading!) 

It’s not that I forgot something. It’s would I choose to forget!

That’s this week’s Tell Me Tuesday topic at the Coloradolady; Memories. Here is the exact question about memories for this week:

“Would you rather lose all of your old memories,

or never to be able to make new ones?”

That’s a pretty heavy question!

Memories are something to cherish. Ideally you learn from the bad ones and build your character from the good ones. They are your past and the foundation of who you are. That’s why I scrapbook, the pages are my character. They are the events, people I love and the things that have influenced me told through my page designs and journaling. It’s how I perceive my world and that perception is who I am in the world as a whole. Even when I do a page about something less-than-happy, even tragic, I scrap/journal about the takeaway, the good I did find in it. I’m an optimist and those scrapbooks truly do represent my character.

In the pages of my personal journals, the pages which have been unseen by anyone else and will remain that way, is a combination of the positive things and the negative. It is a good representation of my life, but not who I choose to be. When I’m angry, writing about it helps me diffuse it. When I’m sad it helps to lift the clouds. It has let me get over frustration about a decision I thought was a bad one that someone else made that didn’t really have an effect on me and it’s helped me realize countless times that my anger was actually fear. Internal fear was a much easier foe to defeat than the perceived outer attack. In essence those journals are the supplies in the craft room where I create my character. I wouldn’t want someone to see all the scraps on the floor, just the finished work. Except in the case of character, the work is never finished. I still don’t want anyone looking at my unvacuumed floor, just what I have on display.

So, my memories are precious to me. At what cost would I let them go?

Well, if I am unable to make new memories, I’m dead or in a coma and if I’ll never make new memories, I’m never coming out of the coma. I’ve never heard about someone coming out of a coma and truly remembering what it was like to be in a coma. Depending on what your belief is about the afterlife, those memories of self wouldn’t be important.

If the essence of your soul returns to the greater soul of God, “self” is nonexistent. If you remain intact and reside in Heaven in God’s World, with Him but not “part of" Him, it becomes a different philosophical question about whether or not Heaven is indeed perfect. What I mean is I’d feel pretty bad as the only angel in Heaven who wasn’t able to talk about their people at the Coffee Cloud. If keeping my memories is part of Heaven’s perfection and I gave them up, I made a BAD deal with the wrong dealer! If I’m reincarnated, I won’t remember anyway, since I don’t now. And if I just die, end of story, well, that’s the end of the story. Point being that no matter what, my memories aren’t important after death, or I’ll get them back anyway, there’s no point in dying to hold on to them.

Of course, there are two very similar alternatives to dead or in a coma to having no memories and would give you at least minor ability to make new ones. I could have amnesia or dementia/Alzheimer's. With dementia or Alzheimer’s the memories slowly fade away, the most recent ones first. I’ve watched relatives mentally dwindle away. After seeing it with my great-grandmother, Grandma started to learn new things and exercise her mind. She was almost 80 when she learned how to use the computer, she quilted and did word puzzles every day. She was bound and determined not to be like her mother. Still her memory started to fade just before her death.

I remember the day that I went to visit Mums and she had no idea who I was. I’d always been so close to my great grandmother. It was a pleasant visit. She thought I was a nice stranger and invited me to visit again if I wanted. I was crying so hard when I got home it’s a wonder I drove the two miles safely. Grandma was a little more prepared a year later when Mums giggled and told her she was way too old to be her daughter, “Wonda is just a little girl.” There were no memories. She didn’t remember our Tuesday coffees, me sleeping in the same room she did for a year, not even how she felt the day I was born. She didn’t remember being at Mom’s wedding or the wonderful stories from her granddaughter’s childhood and she didn’t remember her pride in Grandma’s promotion to management or how proud she was of her raising a daughter alone until Papa returned from the war. True she didn’t remember the bad things either, no memories of deaths, war, the Great Depression when she was a young mother. She wasn’t even really aware anymore by 9-11. And she seemed happy enough, pleasantly unaware.  But she unwillingly hurt the people she loved.  I couldn't stand to voluntarily be in that position.

Ah but, the diseases that rob us of our memories in advanced years don’t really give an opportunity to create new ones either, not ones we'll remember. So, I look at amnesia from some mental or physical trauma, as really the only way one can lose all memories and still create new ones. It’s a fascinating thought. How do you lose all your memories and retain everything that’s developed in you as a result of those memories? As you recuperate, wouldn't you start to get those memories back and isn’t that cheating if you made the choice to give them up?

After deep consideration, I think I’d give up my memories for amnesia, but with the clause that if they start to come back, I’m not in default of the agreement and as long as I can keep my scrapbooks.


You can join in on Tell Me Tuesday; you don’t have to write a term paper, I tend to get carried away sometimes. It’s a fun meme and it really gives you a great chance to look inside yourself or share your thoughts on how you’d like things to be.

Something New & A Barn To View

My something new today is that I’m joining Tell Me Tuesday at The Colorado Lady. Suzanne started this the first Tuesday of the year and I think I may do the first two weeks in my personal journal so I have all 52. Let me tell you about Tell Me Tuesday!

It’s actually not you telling me anything. It’s me telling you! Suzanne posts a question on Tuesdays and participants answer it truthfully. Some weeks have easier questions than others and the hope is maybe the writer learns a little something about themselves in the answering of the question too. I know that happens because I write when I’m troubled because it reveals things to me that I was keeping from myself. I can’ tell you how many times I’ve been writing or typing away in my personal journal when I’ve stopped and said, “Oh! That’s the REAL problem!” I’m looking to the weekly introspective opportunity too!

So, here’s this week’s question:

"What is the most important lesson you learned in the past year?

I could make this week’s answer real short and just say the most important thing I’ve learned in the past year is that I have MS. It turned out that MS was the biggest thing in my world last year.

I’ve NEVER liked spending any more time than I absolutely have to in doctor’s offices or hospitals. I was sure they’d only pump me full of drugs and make the pain worse. The biggest thing I learned from a year that had more baseball-free months than doctor-free months, a first from me in many, many years, was to trust doctors. If I had a dollar for every time a medical professional said, “Don’t worry, I won’t drop you, I won’t let you fall, I won’t lie to you,” well, that’d pay all of copays for the year. Looking back, it seems my mistrust was pretty apparent.

My year of doctors started with my primary care doctor once again assuring me he wouldn’t let me fall off the table when I was having a back manipulation done. Then it progressed to a neurosurgeon telling me a few times that he wouldn’t let me fall if I set down the cane and held his hands so he could see my balance. In September, when I’d started on one medication and knew I was soon to be started on another, I called the pharmacist to be sure I could take Benadryl for my allergies without dangerous interactions. I didn’t take a Benadryl until after I’d given the list of prescriptions and vitamins I’m taking to the pharmacist at the specialty pharmacy and two doctors and got the same opinion, that it was safe, from all 4 sources. l still, the first time I took a pill for my allergies, David had to be home and it had to be during the day, so I wouldn’t be alone or asleep, just in case.

I’m still careful about checking qualification and asking lots of questions, but I learning to trust. I don’t have just one doctor anymore; I have a team of doctors. Trough requests to have everything sent to my primary care doctor at home they ALL know what the other is doing. My doctor won’t drop me. My specialists won’t let me fall and my Physical Therapist won’t have me do something that will hurt me worse. I also trust the medications. As prescribed, they have made me feel so much better and the worst side effect so far is dry mouth, I’m always drinking more water. If ya gotta pick a side effect…

Because I’ve learned to trust doctors, I feel like myself again and I hobble a little better too. Turns out it was, indeed, a valuable lesson.

Bram Charm

This is one of the barns I shot last year on Election Day, 11/8:

 Henry Township, Ohio

I love the way the rich red just pops out behind the cornfield. Yes, and the water tower in the shot totally adds to the coolness factor with me!

Here’s a close up shot we got from further up the road:

It’s a little weathered, but kept up well and it’s very productive looking. And that red is so rich!

See more great barns at Tricia’s Barn Charm on Bluff Area Daily

Links
The Colorado Lady
Bluff Area Daily