so yeah, i’ve been reading and listening….have you?

i was completely charmed by this book on cd. “the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society” by mary ann shaffer and annie barrows. the book was read by several people. the entire story is told via letters written between the characters of the story. the letter writing begins in 1946 by coincidence and allows the tale to unfold describing the effect the german occupation had on the members of the “guernsey literary and potato peel pie society”. it’s a quaint little novel that has it all…..love, loss, bravery, gossip, sacrifice, humor…plus pie! really really liked this one. i think i might even be tempted to find me a pen pal.

i also recently read valerie bertinelli’s “losin it: and gaining my life back one pound at a time.”. it was a quick read. nothing overly captivating but i’ve always liked valerie’s acting so it was interesting to me. i didn’t experience any life changing “aha” moments while reading it tho. and maybe that’s okay.

i listened to michael j fox’s “always looking up”. what an extraordinary normal guy. michael reads this book himself, and i found it a bit of a challenge to keep up with his speaking at first. he speaks fast and it seems some of the sentences kind of run together. this may be a symptom of his parkinson’s disease. i got used to it though and it think the book is actually better for him reading it himself.

another listened to was “into the wild” by jon krakauer.  it’s also a movie and i think i might want to see the movie someday too.  jon pieces together information he’s dug up on christopher johnson mcCandless into a heartbreaking story about a complex young man who experiences too much and dies too young.  i don’t think i spoiled the ending for you by saying that because the bones of this story was newspaper headlines for a bit….”young man freezes to death in wilds of alaska”

there have been a few other books here and there that escape me at this time.  now i’m off to listen to anderson cooper read “dispatches from the edge”

.

what books are you reading or listening too?  what are your favorite ways to get book recommendations?

This morning’s post was going to be about something else, but I’ve just finished watching a BBC programme called “Mind Games: Depression in Sport“, and I’ve started writing this with tears in my eyes.

Not just of sadness, either – they are tears of something like joy at the sheer wonderful bravery of the four sports personalities who were the focus of Gabby Logan’s interviews. Ex-World Heavyweight Champ Frank Bruno, cricketer Marcus Trescothick, soccer player Neil Lennon and former All-Black John Kirwan shared their tales of woe and of the added agonies they faced at suffering depression during lives which most other people would have imagined as a dream come true.

The programme was not without sadness, of course - indeed, the whole programme was prompted by the recent suicide of German goalkeeper Robert Enke, and also mentioned the deaths of Justin Fashanu, David Bairstow and Ireland’s own Darren Sutherland. Overall, though, the way Frank, Marcus, Neil and John have coped with their illness can only fill a fellow sufferer with hope. It was great to see how well they all seem now, and wonderful to hear Frank Bruno laugh again, as he is the only person in history who genuinely laughs “nyuk, nyuk, nyuk”.

Gabby seemed slightly taken aback by the black humour sometimes shown in these cases – John Kirwan revealed that a NZ comedian has started a depression-awareness group called “the Nutters Club”,  while Marcus Trescothick revealed that his team-mates now refer to him as “Mad Fish”. She seemed horrified by this, but I think it’s very funny, and laughter of any sort when you’re really down can only help. To the very few people who know about all my problems I regularly say things like “since I started going mad”, or refer to the fact that I now have a psychiatrist as “now that I’m a mental patient”.

When I wrote first here that I was being sent to see a shrink in St John of Gods I got comments of encouragement like “Good luck, you big nutball” (Jo), “doesn’t matter that it’s in the loony bin” (Mwa) and “going to visit the nut house will be great for you” (Laughykate). While the main thing those three remarks proves is that women are wagons, the irreverence shown was a great help at the time, as you all knew it would be. It felt as if we were laughing at the whole thing together.

Anyway, it was a super programme, and one I hope got a huge audience among people like me.

And, finally, while we’re on the topic, a guy called David Adams wrote this in the Irish Times last week. 

 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/1119/1224259105972.html

I wanted to post a link to it at the time, but didn’t feel like doing another depression post. Now we’re on the topic anyway I’ve put it in. It’s one of the best descriptions I’ve ever read of how you feel when another bout is starting.

Though he never says it, you get the feeling that David Adams is writing from personal experience. If he isn’t then he is showing a wonderful empathy with depression sufferers. Either way, I’d like to thank him, and wish him well.

All in all, a good week in the fighta aginst depression, and in making talking about it more acceptable.

I woke up to a beautiful day, and after three days of exercising inside, I’m heading back up to Havre de Grace for a walk at the pier today.  It’s chilly, but that’s ok…I love the fresh air and to see the beauty of the Bay as I’m walking.

I have found the walking to be so beneficial.  It gives me time alone with my thoughts – and time to plan my day.  Today will be a good day.  I’m cleaning this morning because my girlfriend is coming over for a craft day/girls’ day today.  Her boyfriend Mike is off hunting with my husband, so we can do girly things.  Cleaning is great exercise as well.

I had a NSV last night.  When I got home from my Mom’s, I decided to try on some 22/24s that I had tried on last week that were still too small.  This included 4 blouses and a pair of jeans (without lycra).  I put the blouses on, and although they are still a bit tight, I can wear them, so I should be able to be comfortable in them in a could of weeks.  I also tried on the jeans.  The last time I tried them on (which was only about a week and a half ago) there was no way they fit.

So, last night, I pulled them on, got them up over my hips (farther than they went before) and thought, ”There is no way these are going to even button.”  And then low and behold, they buttoned.  And then I though, “They are tight, there’s no way they are going to zip.”  I sucked it in a bit, and boom, they zipped.  OMG they zipped.  O.M.G.  They were tight, there’s no question about that, but they fit!!!!  In a week I’m figuring they’ll actually be a little more comfortable.

My nephew, Mitchell, decided to come home to surprise the family this weekend for the holiday, so my Mom and I had decided to stop by today and visit him.  We found out that my sister and her family were also going to come up, so we all decided we were going to go to lunch.

I was petrified.

Going to lunch meant eating out.  Out of my comfort zone.  I decided not to make any noise about it, because I hadn’t seen my nephew since he was home last Christmas.  They decided to go to Red Robin for lunch, so off we went.

I got to the restaurant, and scoured the menu, trying to find something, anything that would fit my menu requirements – mushie, high protien, small serving….and I could find nothing to fit the bill.  I was starting to sweat a bit.  I wasn’t hungry (still haven’t felt hunger since the surgery), but I knew I needed to eat.  I heard my mom talking about getting a bowl of chili, but I couldn’t find it on the menu.  Finally, I found it on the back, in tiny print under soups and sandwiches.  Finally.  I ordered just a cup of chili, held the tortilla chips and raw onions.  I ate half of it, and was satisfied.  So, I think I passed my first test.

My nieces and nephew asked me questions about the surgery today.  They thought I could still eat normally.  They thought I had a huge incision.  I showed them my incisions (which are basically scars now) and told them I ate about 600 calories per day.  My niece Joanna, her jaw dropped.  How cute.  She’s got a great little body and works out hard, so knowing that I ate less than her was a jolt for her.  I love that kid.

Move Over World, Here I Am!!

Show your true colors…

I have been watching Glee since the first night.  I have loved the show since the beginning however, tonight topped all episodes.  With all of the pressures that teens have to be just like “everyone else” this episode had one simple message.  Just be yourself…

I feel that I can truly say I have always been myself.  I may not have all the friends that some people have.  I may have never been the “popular” girl.  Yet, I am still happy; I am still me.  No one can take that away from me.

The Glee kids really make me think about what high school was like for me.  High school was not a great time in my life.  I had some really great times in my teens but, high school was HARD!  To say the least…  I love the saying, “What does not kill you, makes you stronger.”  I think that quote sums my high school years up quite nicely.

The struggles I went through in high school definitely made me who I am today.  In someway I am grateful that I had the experiences that I did.  However, I would not wish my struggles on anyone.  I remember sitting on the floor in my bedroom, with tears streaming down my face, telling my mom, “Momma, I just wish they could all feel what I feel for one day.”  That was never true though.  I would not want my worst enemy to feel the way I did.

Kids just do not realize that the things they say and do to eachother really do make an impact.  For so long I felt so alone and truly believed that I was the only teenager that had to go through the struggles that I did.  I, of course, realize now that everyone has their own struggles but when you are 15 and feel like you have no one, that just does not enter your mind.

I really wish this show had been around when I was a teenager.  I really could have used a “Keep Holding On” episode when I was going through a rough day, week, month, year.  However, I am glad that the teenagers today have such a great, encouraging show to come home to.  So, as tonight’s show so simply showed us, your true colors are beautiful like a rainbow!!

Early this morning, when all the house was still asleep, I started procrastinating searching for Important Things on the internet.   I accidently found myself doing a little bit of blog-hopping when I came across a post that touched me deeply.   The author wrote about how sad Thanksgiving was for her. I found myself reading and nodding along as she wrote that while she was  happy to be included in so many Thanksgivings with her friends, she was mostly just deeply missing having her entire family gathered around the table. 

I kept this blogger’s thoughts with me as I set about my work.  I have to admit that I had myself a bit of a pity party as I remembered the huge family gatherings from my youth.  We had very different childhoods and as much as Shaun indulges me, he  just doesn’t understand that I need lot of people around me to share the holidays with.  He just didn’t get my melancholy over the fact that our plans had fallen through and that we were on our own for the day. Holidays were never a bit deal for him, but it was all about family for me.  I can remember running wild with my cousins while the women cooked as they gossiped in the kitchen and the men did Manly Things like set up a table system that would seat at least twenty people.  It was a few days of chaos and pandemonium.  It was..simply wonderful. 

For this lonesome holiday I had planned on making  just a few simple dishes instead of the Great Feast.  That, of course, was before everyone started putting their request in.  As I set about preparing our dishes, I started to remember…to really think…about  where each of these special recipes had originated and who I assoiciated with each of them. 

My Aunt Aleta first brought the 7-Up Jello Salad to one of our gatherings. (Although I’m not sure how one can call a strange mixture of Jello, cream cheese, pineapple and 7-Up a salad)  We all loved it and it was immediately added it to our Must-Have list.  I had to grin as I chopped the sweet potatoes up and thought of our friend Stephen and how much he detests them.  As I watched my fingers cut maraschino cherries into small bits for Glorified Rice,  I suddenly saw my grandma’s gnarled hands doing the same exact thing.  As I formed small balls of dough and covered them to rise, I thought of the traditional  Brown N’ Serve rolls that were nearly always forgotten and someone had to run to the store for.  On and on it went…the memories started flowing over me.  From the year the pilot light on the oven went out leaving us with a raw turkey to the olives that we kids stuck to the ends of our fingers thinking we were so clever. 

As the morning wore on, my lightened and I started, just as the blogger I had visited earlier,  to feel the gratitude for all that I have.  It may not have been the huge gathering of my youth that I longed to recreate, but I did have my immediate family with me all day long.  I also had the memories of each Thanksgiving that I have celebrated through the years.  They are all special days and I’m glad to have them.  

I can only hope that we have made enough wonderful memories with our girls to sustain them if they ever need a little help remembering how much they have to be thankful for…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I’m greatful for all I have, my family and friends, and this chance I’ve been given at a new life!

I got this e-mail on Tuesday, but Mom says she’s busy tonight so I can’t go to it. She did say there were ropes outside the sales office, a line of people, and free cappuccino inside. She has pictures on her site.

WELLINGTON AT ISLAND PARK

Thank you for registering for “The Wellington at Island Park”. My name is Marnie Bennett and I will be taking care of sales and marketing of this fabulous, contemporary boutique condominium. Built by Theberge Homes and designed by Barry J. Hobin, “The Wellington at Island Park” is first in class both in design and location!

I would like to cordially invited to the priority sales launch for the Wellington at Island Park where you will be given the opportunity to purchase a unit before they are listed on MLS® – Multiple Listing Service.

·         The launch will take place on Thursday November 26^th, 2009 from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm at the Wellington at Island Park sales office located at 1433 Wellington Street West (one block east of Island Park). There is a model home on site.

·         Please ensure that you bring your cheque book, as we require a $1,000 (refundable) deposit for every hold/reservation that you place.

·         There are 38 units available starting from the 240’s with $20,000 down (made in 3 instalments that will be outlined for you on Thursday evening)

I just wanted to take a minute to explain the process of a priority launch.

·         Upon arrival, you will line up and be checked in with our sales team at the front door where you will be handed a complete kit folder on the building (this will include a price list, floor plans and specifications).

* There will be no floor plans or pricing available prior to the launch.

There will be agents on hand to answer any questions you may have about the development. Units will be sold on a first come first serve basis.

·         Once you have made a decision on the suite(s) you would like to purchase, you will proceed to the reservation desk to ensure that that suite is available. You will then be handed a place card to complete your reservation.

·         Our sales team will then collect your deposit cheque and book an appointment for you to come in and write up your agreements of purchase and sale at a later date.

I also want to mention that this is an exclusive Bennett Real Estate Professionals launch. Therefore, we will not be entertaining any outside realtors. If you are a realtor, there will be a public sales launch on Saturday December 5^th which you are welcome to attend.

This development is definitely worth taking a look at and units are sure to go quickly!

Thank you for your interest in the Wellington at Island Park and I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday evening!

Warm Regards,

Marnie Bennett, Broker

There is an old Irish expression: “Tá me ar muin na muice”. It is a reply sometimes given when you are asked how you are doing, and the literal translation is “I am on the pig’s back”.

You give this reply if you are doing well, as apparently a pig’s back is a splendid place to be, though I can come up with about thirty better places without putting any real thought into it at all. People back then obviously had simpler needs. 

Another, almost equally old, Irish institution is the Just a Minute quiz on Larry Gogan’s radio show. Larry has been a DJ on RTE since radio consisted of a man playing a record on a gramophone attached to a really big ear-trumpet and placed beside an open window, and some of the replies given by members of the public during his quick-fire quiz are the stuff of legend. While most (“What was Hitler’s first name?” “Heil”) are obviously apochryphal, one that is true occurred when he asked “complete the saying ‘As happy as…’”, expecting the answer ‘Larry’, but receiving instead the equally accurate ‘a pig in shit’ (and,in fairness, he just said “Oh. Er, correct”, and carried on).

So, why all the pig references?

Today I had my swine flu injection. I am therefore firmly in the saddle upon Pinky, am as merry as Perky in manure, and am worried that this sentence has some hidden smutty meaning that I don’t in any way intend.  

It’s not like I even asked for it. I never really thought about getting it, because, you see, I don’t usually get sick. 

I do know that at this stage those of you who read this blog regularly are counting upon your fingers, going “blackouts, stopped heart, forehead-scarring, pacemaker, depression, derealisation, being over fifty,” and are now thinking of adding amnesia and dementia to the list before you run out of counting-fingers, and I know the above statement sounds a little odd coming from a man who’s very blogname is derived from the fact that he has an artificial implant, and not for cosmetic or, er, inadequacy reasons either.

But you know what I mean. The issues on my Medical CV, many though they are, don’t count. Apart from them I don’t tend to get sick in the way that normal people do, i.e., colds, flu, coughs or whatever peculiar affiction it is that causes people on my train in the morning to snuffle and snurckle like (and the theme is back) a pig trying to eat a tennis ball through a surgical glove.

So I listened to the debate about the injections, sympathised fully with the uncertainties felt by pregnant friends (congrats & best wishes, by the way, K8), but had not really felt the whole thing applied to me in any way, since I never catch any of this stuff.

Then this morning I’d to go for a blood test, ordered by my shrink, since apparently there’s a very small chance that the super new drugs he has put me on might damage my liver (I’ll be really pissed off if they do – if he wants to damage my liver all he has to do is ask and I’ll go to the pub more often). Anyway, my doctor happened to be in reception when I arrived, she said to the nurse “it’s ok, I’ll do it”, and while she was doing the test she said “actually, we could probably argue you’re in the high-risk health category, so I can give you the swine-flu jab”, and she did it.

So, will it work? I’ll let you know. First inclinations are good, though. She said one of the things it does is make your left arm really sore, and it certainly hasn’t let me down on that. I have a lump the size of an apple on my arm, and yell like a (oh, God, stop) stuck pig if I brush against anything. I suspect the mercury in the injection might be rising up my arm like in a thermometer as I get warmer.

Of course, this will probably be my last post for about a week, as God didn’t create a world as weird as the one we live in without having a very dry sense of humour.

And writing, on a blog, on the internet, effectively potentially telling the whole galaxy, that I never catch anything is really just asking for it.

Since I’ve had the braces put on, I’ve been making a more conscious effort to take more care of my appearance.  I figure that if the lower half of my face is going to be disfigured by a pound of metal, then I may as well make sure that the rest of me looks as good as it could.

After reading a recent article about the Clarisonic brush, I admit I was tempted.  My skin’s pretty good, but it could be better.  The price, however, was somewhat off-putting – the new radiators and paint we’ve had to buy recently don’t come cheap, as well as saving up to feed 80 people at our nuptials.  Also, when I asked S what he thought about the product, his response was sceptical, to say the least.  So I reasoned that before I went out and spent two weeks’ grocery money on a skin gadget, I should start out with the budget stuff and see if that made a difference.

I’ve never regularly used an exfoliator, but that seemed like a good place to start.  The next time I went past the chemist, I picked up a tube of Johnson’s Clean and Clear scrub and have been using it every morning in the shower, followed by a careful application of moisturiser.  Well, I can’t compare it against the results a Clarisonic would produce, but I’m happy – my skin feels a lot smoother and has a nice glow about it.

What has actually made the biggest difference to my appearance, however, is the fact that with a brace on I can’t bite my fingernails anymore.  Not that I used to do this regularly – but occasionally I would get stressed and before I knew it, my hands would be in my mouth and I’d have destroyed three weeks’ growth.  After only two weeks of not being physically able to do this, my hands look tonnes better, which shows off my (interim) engagement ring to nicer effect!  Obviously the brace is there as a long term aid to improving my physical appearance, but I never expected that it would be so effective in the short term.  It just goes to show that sometimes an archwire is the best beautician.  And it’s free, too.

In my museum studies course packet I just came across this task and having done it myself, thought it would be fun to take the game online among my friends. The question was “If you had to select 2 or 3 objects which would help to tell the story of your life, what would they be?” I guess the other way to ask the question is “objects that represent you?”

Here’s the first 3 things I came up with without a second’s thought – Passport, Spice Kit & Lap-top which to me represent the peregrine, the culinary experimenter and writer/scholar in me.

A fourth would be my Kindle device which at any given moment would be carrying books I am reading.

For those inclined (and I hope there are many who’ll play this game) do write in and let me know what your three objects would be to represent yourselves? And your thoughts about my choices would be interesting as well.

Let the games begin…

Brannon Howse using GOIP Tech and STRETCH Technology’s Hellescope discernmentalizes that Emergents are actually Atheistic Communists:

Emerging Trouble

 The pastors and authors of one of America’s fastest growing spiritual movements, the Emergent Church, sing the praises of socialism. As I’ll explain in more detail later, the Emergent Church champions the neo-Marxist call for a utopian society through spiritual evolution where good and evil merge to form a “better” third option. This idea derives from the belief system of philosophers such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and finds its contemporary manifestation in the “Third Way” movement of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In the Third Way, capitalism, socialism, and communism merge to form a misanthropic combination of the three. This blending is now represented in the terms “the New World Order” and “the new enlightenment.”

 The Third Way promotes Communitarianism, a toxic blend of communism, socialism, atheism, and Cosmic Humanism. Communitarians believe in universal health care, government-subsidized housing and education, radical environmentalism, Fabian socialism, and the like.

An article on the website of the Democratic Leadership Council explains how Clinton and Blair have promoted Third Way thinking across the globe:

On Sunday, April 25, 1999, President Clinton and the DLC hosted a historic roundtable discussion, “The Third Way: Progressive Governance for the 21st Century, “with five world leaders including British PM Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Dutch PM Wim Kok, and Italian PM Massimo D’Alema, the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and DLC President Al From.[4]

Starting with Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign in 1992, Third Way thinking is reshaping progressive politics throughout the world. Inspired by the example of Clinton and the New Democrats, Tony Blair in Britain led a revitalized New Labour party back to power in 1997. The victory of Gerhard Shroeder and the Social Democrats in Germany the next year confirmed the revival of center-left parties which either control or are part of the governing coalition forming throughout the European Union. From Latin America to Australia and New Zealand, Third Way ideas also are taking hold.

Not to be hoodwinked by the window dressing of Third Way advocates, however, Vaclav Klaus, prime minister of the Czech Republic, warns against the real future it offers: “The Third Way is the fastest route to the Third World.”[5] But that seems to be where communitarians want to take us.

Grave Influence: 21 Radicals and Their Worldviews that Rule America from the Grave

This is it, the one book you need to read if you want to understand the big picture, connect all the dots, and understand current times, and future events and trends that will be unfolding. This ground-breaking book by best-selling author Brannon Howse is the result of thousands of hours of research over many years and is must reading for every teenager and adult.

Brannon reveals how the worldviews of 21 dead people are still influencing every aspect of American life and vying for the hearts and minds of adults and students. Whether we are discussing, law, science, economics, history, family, social issues, education or religion, the people and worldviews seeking to further their agenda in these disciplines are almost always connected back to four major forces. Brannon reveals the connection between occultism/pagan spirituality, the apostate church, the educational establishment and government/corporations.

Through this book you will come to understand the oppositions worldview, heroes, goals, strategies, masking terms, networks and targets. Those who share the worldviews of these 21 enemies of our constitutional republic and Biblical worldview do not want their agenda and its consequences to be revealed to the American people. Above all, they do not want us to equip and train our children and grandchildren with a Biblical worldview by which to recognize, reject, and fight against their seductive and destructive lies. This book will equip you to do just that as Brannon gives specific and pro-active responses you can take to make this the finest hour for the American church.

Here is the list of twenty-one for which Brannon has dug up worldview facts you must know and prepare to oppose:
 
Saul Alinsky, Karl Marx, John Dewey, John Maynard Keynes, Aldous Huxley, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Margaret Sanger, William James, Alice Bailey, Helen Schuman, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, Benjamin Bloom, B.F. Skinner, The Frankfurt School, Soren Kierkegaard, Julius Wellhausen, Christopher Columbus Langdell, Betty Friedan and Roger Baldwin

Topics covered include:

Corporate fascism, sustainable development, the Third Way, global governance, dialectic process, the Delphi technique, the Cloward-Piven Strategy and deliberate chaos, community organizing, Fabian socialism, the federal reserve and a fiat currency, America’s decline is Europe’s gain, cultural Marxism, government mandated youth service, legal positivism, postmodernism, soft-despotism, higher-criticism, pagan spirituality, feminism, welfare-state capitalism, the false-dominate church, the Emergent Church, the spiritual battle for America, the United Nations and occultism, unmasking the one-world religion, the deconstructionists in the culture and in the church, psychological labeling of dissenters, behavior modification, a planned economy, the assault on parental authority, the two tracks to globalism, Keynesian economics, collectivism, similarities between America and Nazi Germany, national leaders are a reflection of the people, social justice, why the culture war is lost if the church goes weak, is God judging America?, When and why does God judge a nation?, the environmentalist/globalist connection, cultural revolution/sexual revolution, the right to die becomes the duty to die, the true purpose of the law, why the State wants the children, are we all God’s children? And much, much more.

Click here to order now:
http://www.worldviewweekend.com/secure/store/product.php?ProductID=1044

We agree that Emergents are Absolutely evil. Just look at how a typical Emergent looks:

This is why ye must avoid those evil Emergent heretics: Iggy, Tripp Fuller, The Groundworks, Mike Morrell and TheoPoet.

First, let me apologize again to those who voted in my informal poll….what to write about next. I haven’t forgotten. But, I have found over the years, that my bipolar brain tends to latch on to and wrap itself around a (or several) random thought.  It then hooks up with the OCD part of my brain. This result of that is like being poked in the hiney with a cattle prod welded by a famous person = the thoughts are not always fun or pleasant but you have this insane urge to tell everyone.

So, strap yourself in and hang on for the ride. Hopefully, I’ll be able to wander too far off the subject. No promises, though.

For some crazy reason, around this time of year (for several years), I have decided that I can cut my hair better than my hairdresser. I think to myself….it couldn’t be that hard to trim my own hair . Think of the money and time that I can save!  This idea ranks right up there with the famous redneck last words…”Hey watch this!”

  My reasonable self says, “No! Don’tdoitdon’tdoitdon’tdoitdon’tdoit!” But, around the holidays, I never listen to my reasonable self which could explain the boxes that TPKen just got out of the attic. They were labeled “Christmas decorations”, but were, in fact, filled with clearance Christmas crap that even Goodwill would not accept. Broken ornaments that I just knew I could fix with a little Super Glue ( I do love my SG). Hallmark ornaments dated  2008 for First Born, Our New Home, #1 Teacher, etc. Now if I could just find someone who had a baby in 2007-2008 who wants a cradle with a rocker broken off ornament or prehaps, a kid who forgot to give their teacher a gift last year or the year before that or a couple who just never got around to purchasing an ornament after they closed their house loan last year…..

I digress, as usual. Back to my Chrismullet. I’m very good at cutting my own hair….on the top and sides. Then, I look in a double mirror at the back and realize that I have a haircut that could pass for a Joe Dirt extra. So, I try to fix it. And, I look in the mirror and think…”Hmm, it’s not that bad, except for the uneven layers. No problem! This will be a piece of cake”.

clip, clip, clip…there. That should do it. Except, I can see in the mirror that one side in the back is about 1/2 to 1 inch (depending on which layer) longer/shorter than the other side. So, thus begins my traditional “fixing of the hair”.  The traditional hair fixing is always accompanied by my very own original  holiday carol (which even I am too ashamed to post due to the the fact that the entire song is nothing more than a series of cuss words sung to the tune of Jingle Bells).

Over the next 8-10 days, I spend a few hours (broken up in to 10-15 minute increments) in the bathroom cutting “stray hairs.”

At this time, a reasonable woman would throw up her hands and go get it cut professionally. Notice, I said “a reasonable woman”.

I don’t give up that easily.

By day 11 or 12, I realized that I am seriously in need of a real hairdressers help….or a hat. I, of course, go for the hats. Hats are easier than having to explain to a hairdresser why my hair looks like it was caught in a wood chipper. Especially, since my personal hairdresser has had to fix my haircuts on several occasions before this one.

By this time, I am sporting my own creation…..the Chrismullet.

I shouldn’t be allowed to own scissors.  Not even those kid’s safety scissors.

Hmmm….”wondering if I can start a Chrismullet holiday style”.

In the meantime, I’ll just bookmark these sites…..Surviving A Bad Haircut and Accessorize It! and wear a fun hat…..

editing to add a Christmas treat for my blogging friends and readers. ENJOY! And, laugh….this has to put you in a good mood!

I was at Corbins Corner in West Hartford the other day with a few minutes to kill, so I dropped into the Verizon store to find out when I was due for a new phone on the “New Every Two” plan.

“January, 2008.”

“Really.”

“You were notified.”

“I’m sure I was.”

I don’t use my cell phone much.  I’m on the 300-minute plan, which is way more than enough.  But there it was.  The Droid.  And the voice in my head.

“You want a new toy.”

“But I don’t need it.”

“New toy.  Apps.  You want it.”

“I’d barely use it.”

“So what?  You want it.”

The next day, I went to hit golf balls for a while.  No one else was on the range.  Then I played nine holes by myself.  Two balls on every hole.  No one else around.  I reveled in my solitude.

And it was there that “I don’t need it” took a commanding lead over “You want it.” I couldn’t imagine a phone call or an email disrupting the tranquility. (For the record, I never take the phone on the course.)

Still, the inner battle continues.  I think it’s the apps.

Many people have asked me this month if I enjoyed the National Novel Writing Month challenge and if so, would I consider doing it again. The answer to both is an emphatic, “Yes!” Below, I have tried to explain why and also, why I will not be waiting until next November to begin another creative project.

Since the NaNoWriMo challenge, I have been even more excited by, and about, writing. I have been writing every day for over a year with my daily journaling, but now I find myself yearning to do more creative writing as well. Writing the NaNoWriMo story (I just cannot bring myself to call something of 52,000 words ‘a novel’) was good for me. It put me in the habit of using my imagination every day and of sitting myself down in a chair to write every day to keep it rolling. The thrill of having the words come tumbling effortlessly out of my mind and onto the screen was addicting. The agony of having no words and being able to find them and wrestle them loose from their death grip on the deepest recesses of my brain and putting them on the screen where they belonged was even more so.

I wanted more of that.

Once I finished the challenge, I felt at a loss as to how to keep that creativity going so being the bookworm I am, I started reading “Writing Fiction” by Gotham Writers’ Workshop, from the acclaimed New York City creative writing school. It is teaching me about the foundations of creative writing: characters, plot, point of view, dialogue, etc., and I am really enjoying it. Each chapter is written by a different instructor and focuses on a different element. There are writing assignments to do, too, and I am not ashamed to admit, I love them. In fact, I would venture to say that one or two of the small passages I have written so far may be some of my best writing yet. They are definitely some of the most imaginative and may even have potential to be developed into full-blown books in their own right.

The most amazing part of “Writing Fiction” so far has been the chapter on generating ideas. It seems like that would be something impossible to teach, that you either have an idea or you do not, but the book demonstrates how to find ideas in the every day, to turn something just enough on an angle so that it becomes something new. I have appreciated that most of all. With one exercise, I was able to think of twenty potential story ideas. I could not have done that before.

Another great result of NaNoWriMo has been the amazing people I have met in the community. Writers, people who write every day and are published regularly, are becoming friends and mentors. They ask questions about my writing and offer encouragement and advice. I have reached out to a couple of them through Twitter and they have been genuinely supportive. Many of them have fantastic blogs about writing and the processes they go through and I am learning so much from them.

I know writing is not something at which it is easy to succeed. It is something that many want to attempt and it is something at which almost everyone thinks they excel. I have no grand dreams of making a living at this, especially since most professional writers do not even make a living at this, but I know I want writing to become more important in my day, to move to the forefront of my life. Whether that means freelancing, or a novel, or just a better blog, I do not know. I know it takes great discipline, desire, and dedication to become a successful writer. I know it will take hours and hours and hours and hours of doing it to do it well.

I am definitely going to try.

one D O G. loves to play fetch. especially from 3 am to 6 am.

one longarm quilt machine. used to being called names.

3 spools of blue thread. slightly used. recently sliced into small 5 inch pieces, exposed to cuss words, pissed on and lit on fire.

1 portable cd player. slightly blown out speakers. i’ll toss in 3 “angry women” cds.

1 broken woman. well versed in the english language, however favors a couple of words.

A bottle of Loreal shampoo, $1000 in hair extensions and a little Photoshopping and you too can have hair like Cheryl Cole’s!  And Herbal Essence shampoo will totally give you orgasms!

A spokeswoman for L’Oréal said she “did not know” whether Cole used human or artificial extensions. A company statement said: “Cheryl has worn hair extensions for some time. They are part of her look and are cared for in the same way as normal hair.”

Hey, it’s OK:  I wear wigs all the time. I’m blonde one day, red the next. Short for work, long for play. But one thing I’ll never do: Try to pass it off as my own. I’m happy to see that in the UK at least, advertisers put disclaimers in their shampoo ads to let viewers know that the models who hawk their products are sporting fake hair.

If someone compliments me on my hair I typically say “Thank you. It’s a wig.”  Everyone acts shocked. “But it looks so real!”  Then I tell them I’m completely bald.* Kudos to my hairdresser for his ability to make my hairpieces look as though they sprout from my head.

I could just say “Thank you” and leave it at that, but I feel compelled to set the record straight even though I know I’ll never see that person again.   I  have “don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” anxieties, even in middle age, due to unresolved baggage from my youth.  Girls are raised to have unrealistic beauty expectations already and I hate the thought of women feeling bad because their hair doesn’t look like a freaking wig. Of course their hair isn’t going to look as fab as mine: Their hair is real! Mine is not, and I think they have the right to know.  Call it a sisterhood thing.

Now if only all women could be blunt about the crazy things they do to be pretty, even if to admit to the subtle and generic, “I’ve had work done.”  Or maybe we could just quit with the fakery . . . Uh . . . You go first.

*hair disease

If ye haven’t read my first post exposing Mike do so or else. The second thing that concerns us about Mike Morrell’s post is Mike’s Romanist leanings. Ken Silva is quoted as saying:

What utter and complete blasphemy. May the Lord reveal Himself to you and open your eyes to the idol you have created and now worship. May He remove the veil of ignorance that you blissfully revel in but that holds your soul in condemnation.

Editors’ Note: We of God’s Truly Chosen Elect don’t have idols you know.

Indeed we of the Online Discernmentalist Mafia and the GOIP are saying an Imprecatory Prayer against Mike’s evilness. What is so evil about Mike you may ask besides saying that God changes—why he supports Contemplative Spirituality which is nothing more than Romanism repackaged—the deformation of  Protestant Christianity if you will. Anyways, here is an incriminating quote from Mike Morrell’s post:

Part of the ‘inner reflex’ is Centering Prayer is letting go. For 20 minutes twice a day, it’s a continuous letting go of thoughts and emotions that well up inside – kind of like a fisherman catching fish but not to eat – just for fun. He’s sitting in a boat (the mind) and his pole rests in the water (the field of consciousness). Little fish (thoughts, ideas, emotions) come up and nibble on the line (ordinary awareness) – the fisherman doesn’t shoot the fish with a revolver or cut the line. Instead, he pulls the little fish up, but doesn’t keep them in the boat – it’s catch & release.

Catch and release, catch and release, gently, graciously – because you recognize that even the lake is situated in a much larger ecosystem (God). You can let go because the earth is abundant; you will be fed. Centering Prayer is a journey of trust in God, even on the unconscious level, where all kind of mis-trustful thoughts bubble up to the surface. The life centered in surrender to & trust in God is a life of profound peace and productivity – and our Scriptures attest, in a myriad of ways, that such trust (faith) ‘pleases God.’ But when we’re faced with the disturbing truths that Brueggemann elucidates – God’s irascibility for instance – what do we do?

There are two ways to do handle this. One is the way of definitive, forceful – almost violent – denial that there is (or has ever been) anything troubling in God’s character or actions. It’s the route of trusting God via suppression.

But there is another route – more painful, more adult, more complex – but I think it can still end in deeply-rooted, childlike trust. It’s a path that I’ve learned from many guides over the years, including Bruggie Baby (sorry for the familiarity, but it’s really hard typing his name over and over again), Meister Eckhart, the Jewish scholar Richard Elliot Friedman in The Hidden Face of God, Jack Miles in his Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God, ‘deeper life’ missionary and teacher Norman Grubb, and the process theologians that Tripp Fuller is getting me to read (like his professor Philip Clayton of Transforming Theology) or listen to & he and Chad Crawford’s uber-awesome podcast Homebrewed Christianity – all refined in the daily, simple crucible (quite actually) of centering prayer as taught by Contemplative Outreach and particularly Cynthia Bourgeault. (Did you read that paragraph, Ken Silva? It was practically tailor-written for you, LOL. If you don’t write about me, Discernmentalist Mafia will!)

My fellow colleague in discernmentalizations Dr. Truthslayer has this to add about Mike’s Emergent Romanism:     

ODMafia went on the prowl….we sent our research robot monkeys behind the scenes to find the authentic Emergent Church (EC). …What did we find?….Among other  things that have been discovered (as suggested in previous posts)….we spotted couches, candles and sometimes left-over coffee cups (often left in the recycled bin which suggests that they are Earth worshipers). Surely this has new age undertones.

Anyways, we all know with Absolute Certainty that candles in church=Romanism. And that’s Mike Morrell, a Romanist—we have Absolute Proof:

Mike Morrell caught sinning by drinking alcohol and with the Pope at that.

Mike Morrell exposed as a Romanist/Papist pope and idol worshipping heretic.

Art Lake (from WJAR)

Art Lake, one of the originals at WJAR, NBC10 in Providence, died Sunday.  He was 85.

I didn’t know Art, but I came across this in his obit in the Providence Journal, and it blew me away.

The TV station WJAR arrived in July 1949, and the first newscasts were anchored by Lake and Russ Van Arsdale.

In those days, Lake told The Providence Journal in 2004, he and Van Arsdale had to drink Knickerbocker Beer, one of the station’s sponsors, throughout the show. They stopped because they were burping through the broadcast.

This reminded me of my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Edward Convery.  Mr. Convery was a proud Irishman who would stand at the head of the classroom at Memorial School in beautiful Framingham, Massachusetts, and tell Irish jokes.

One day, he professed his love of Knickerbocker beer to the class.  This seemed perfectly OK, because in our little minds we were the upperclassmen in the context of a grades 1-6 elementary school.

He had the class repeat after him:  “Nicka-bocka-beeah.  Nicka-bocka-beeah.  Nicka-bocka-beeah!” Go ahead, try it.  It’s catchy.  And when 25 sixth graders did it in unison, it was downright fun.

Of course, drinking Knickerbocker during a newscast and having a bunch of sixth graders say the name of a beer in unison would be completely unacceptable now.

But just for fun, repeat after me…

I’ve always felt really bad for Thanksgiving. The poor little holiday that’s tucked in between the candy-fest of Halloween and the chaos of Christmas. I think our Canadian neighbors have the right idea celebrating in October.  I’m fairly certain the pilgrims wouldn’t mind.

One of my ancestors was a pilgrim.  He had the dubious honor of being one of the first two people to be put in the stocks in the New World.  The other fellow was the one he was fighting over a girl with.  She ended up married to someone else.

I am eligible to be a member of the Mayflower Society.  When I was younger, I really wanted to be a part of this elite group.  Although I never did the paperwork, so I guess I didn’t want it that bad.  Perhaps the younger generations will care to join. 

The youngest generation of our family is on the other side of the pass.  We’ve been planning on heading over there to see her for the holiday.  Of course we’d also love to see her adorable brother and sister.  And her grandma.  Oh, and her mom.  And her daddy.

Shelly, of course can’t wait to see her favorite dog in the world, Nico.  He lives on the other side of the pass too.  Nico likes Shelly well enough, but I get the feeling that the love is not equally reciprocated.  I get the feeling that Nico just loves the ladies.  Don’t tell Shelly though…it would break her heart. 

As much as we would love to see everyone, the thought of traveling for more than six hours  over a cold and icy pass with six people and two dogs seems to be making us rethink our plan.  There is a very good possibility that we will be celebrating Thanksgiving at home. 

In a last minute effort to plan the menu, I sent a link the Martha Stewart’s vegetarian feast to all the members of our family to see what they thought.  To my surprise, Shaun thought it was a great idea.  My dad wasn’t nearly as thrilled with the thought of a meat-free Thanksgiving. 

It’s a good thing I bought a turkey a few days ago and have it thawing in the downstairs refrigerator…

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (I’m pretty impressed that you made it all the way down here!)