30!

Tags

30, brave, El Tarasco - Visalia, growing up, joy

I remember my mother’s thirtieth birthday so well! After dinner that night (just Mom and us kids, as Daddy was working the night shift), Mom was washing dishes and had the only age-related meltdown I remember. She just kind of whimpered, “What am I doing here? I have three kids, my husband’s not here…I want my mother!” Then, as I watched, she shook herself off, straightened up, and told herself, “I have three beautiful children, my husband isn’t here because he is working to provide for us, and I am the mother.” She celebrated every birthday as a gift.

Today my daughter turned thirty. There are no words for how proud I am of her. With the exception of Aunt Betty, she is the strongest woman I know. Every day she sets aside her own whims and wishes for the good of her little family, keeping her sights on the goal ahead. She is truly the “wish my heart made”, and I want nothing but wonderfulness and joy for her.

Happy thirtieth birthday, Georgia. When you look in the mirror, may you see what I see in you: strength, beauty, courage, and joy!

Georgia’s birthday dinner at El Tarasco. Whitney, Olivia, and Nick are looking on.

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Black Friday

Tags

Black Friday, Close To My Heart, Joann's Fabrics, Michael's Crafts, Olive Garden 1630, shopping

While walking guests to their tables at work today, I took an informal survey about their Black Friday/Saturday shopping experiences. Most people admitted to doing at least “a little” shopping, and some were going as soon as they finished eating. None had any great tales about fabulous finds, although one did tell me she found some great crafting deals at Michael’s and Joann’s Fabrics, and I should go check them out. This tickled me, as I didn’t know her at all and I don’t think anything on my all black, adornment-free Olive Garden garb would scream “crafter” to her. Perhaps we just know our own kind.

I have very deliberately stayed away from the stores these past few days, being content to do the bulk of my shopping from my own Close To My Heart website. (You can, too, by visiting my Online Business Address.) But tomorrow after work I think I’ll wander past the craft stores and see if anything jumps out at me and begs to be taken home.

Happy shopping.

Polls and surveys

Tags

blogging, opinion, polls, surveys, writing

I am such a sucker for polls and surveys. I really do think that most manufacturers pay attention to feedback from consumers, and that it is generally worth my while to provide it. I quite often write reviews of books I have purchased from Amazon.com, and have done my share with TripAdvisor and other travel sites, as well.

So that’s what happened to tonight’s writing time. After a crazy evening trying to put two very uncooperative little girls to bed (Mom and Dad are out of town, and sometimes they think Grammy is a pushover), I sat down to write, only to be greeted by a marketing survey. Not just a survey, but one that was willing to pay me for my time. So I took it. And ran out of time to blog.

What about you? Are you an opinionated survey junkie like me, or do you just hit the “delete” button and continue on your merry way? I’m curious to hear how you feel.

Happy Birthday

Tags

birthdays, first loves, Senior Citizen, Viet Nam

I don’t think we ever truly “get over” our first great love. Others may follow and eventually become a higher priority, but lessons learned and experience gained the first time around linger and contribute to our adult selves.

I was thinking about this today as I realized that somewhere my first great love is celebrating his 65th birthday. We always laughed about me being the “older woman” — by some six weeks — and reaching all the milestone birthdays before him. Our relationship spanned nearly eight years, starting with “social dancing skills” in freshman physical education…kindred spirits who loved dancing and were a bit awkward (definitely not part of the “in crowd”). We stayed good friends while I dated others in high school, having our first official date at Grad Night in Disneyland. He was there for my 18th birthday, and I for his. By my 21st, I was living away at college and our lives were beginning to diverge. By my 22nd, he had dropped out of college and gone to fight in Viet Nam, and I had married someone else.

So now we are both 65, with a lifetime of experiences behind us and many more ahead. I often think of the “what-ifs”, and am fairly sure that had we married when we thought we would, he would have become my first ex-husband. We are probably both better off since that didn’t happen. I became more liberal with age, while he became more conservative. I became a more rabid feminist, while he became more and more close-minded and biased. He often boasted that “no wife of mine will ever have a job”, something I realized in retrospect was more controlling than caring. I would have driven him insane with my radical ideas, and rebelled against his patriarchy. But being with him helped me figure out who I was becoming, and I am grateful.

Happy 65th birthday, Jack Derry Barker. Welcome to the wonderful world of true Senior Citizenship. I hope you are as content at this stage of your life as I, and that things just keep getting better for both of us.

Cuesta College formal dance, Spring of 1969 (I think). We went to make up for my missing Senior Prom in high school.

Shopping

Tags

celery, Christmas decorating, Christmas shopping, Costco - Visalia, frozen spinach, gridlock, grocery shopping, Panera Bread - Visalia, Thanksgiving

Regardless of where you personally stand in the controversy over stores being open on Thanksgiving Day for extended Black Friday shopping, I am here to report that the Christmas shopping season has now officially arrived.

I met a friend for breakfast this morning at our local Panera Bread (one of my favorite places), as Costco is near by and she wanted to be there when it opened to get her Thanksgiving pies. I decided to stop there, too, and check out their microwave oven prices, as ours died completely yesterday. They evidently opened earlier than usual, though, because as I drove up the street I could see their full-to-overflowing parking lot. I didn’t want anything badly enough to brave that mess, so I just kept on driving! (My friend reported later that they had every check stand open and she was actually in and out with her pies in less than twenty minutes. Well done, Costco!)

As I drove to the grocery store I realized that traffic on our main thoroughfare was already gridlocked, as it will be through the New Year. So were many of the grocery aisles, especially those in the meat department and bakery. And many people were “shopping by committee”, with three or four people standing together in the middle of the aisle, staring blankly at the shelves and making it impossible to pass without being rude. Why do I always wait until the day before Thanksgiving to buy my feast? At least I’m consistent.

Of course, after I got home and unloaded my purchases I realized what I had forgotten. So later I went out again, this time to the post office on the opposite side of town, the newest one that always has the shortest lines. I was mailing a hand-made Christmas card to a crafter in England, and needed International postage. Feeling very accomplished, I visited my second grocery store of the day for the remaining ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner. After searching in vain for frozen spinach, I finally found my favorite store manager, who sent one of his guys searching in the back room for it, and was rewarded when he returned triumphantly holding a spinach package above his head!

Contrary to many years past, grocery stores are all open Thanksgiving Day now, at least for limited hours. So tomorrow morning I will be able to go back for the third time for the celery that I forgot not once, but twice. Not only does it go into my stuffing, but it helps keep the turkey from sticking to the roasting bag. Yikes! But first I’ll try borrowing some from one of my neighbors. I’ve had enough shopping for a few days!

For the record, I won’t be doing any “Black Thursday” shopping tomorrow. And when Friday comes, I won’t be visiting any of the stores that were open on Thursday when their employees would have loved to be home with their families. I am grateful that Olive Garden Restaurant remains closed on Thanksgiving Day so that we can enjoy the holiday the way it was designed to be — with our families. That said, I recognize that the restaurants that stay open tomorrow serve a definite need for those who either don’t want to cook or don’t have families with whom to spend the day. I’m just glad ours is not one of those.

However you choose to spend the day, I hope it is happy and full of thankfulness for the wonderful opportunities this country has to offer. And if you start putting up your Christmas decorations tomorrow after dinner, I won’t complain at all. Our house will begin its metamorphosis from Thanksgiving to Christmas about that time, too.

Cuddle time

Tags

cuddle time, grandmothers, The Lego Movie

My mother had this little verse in an antique frame on her dresser. I have no idea who wrote it, as it is not signed. But I knew as a teenager that it was true, and it speaks to me even more now.

“A GRANDMOTHER is a special friend
who understands and cares.
She keeps you in her fondest thoughts
and always in her prayers.”

Last night as I was starting to think about quietly sitting down to blog, my youngest granddaughter came into my room and asked if I would go into the living room and cuddle with her. She said she was too hot with her blanket, and too cold without it, so she needed me. I tried wrapping her in my sweater, sitting at my computer, but that just “wasn’t comfy for her”. So I gave up and headed to the living room.

We settled down on the couch with The Lego Movie in progress (I did not find it particularly satisfying, but the girls were enjoying it), me stretched out with Olivia on my tummy. As always, she wanted to know how big she was when she did that as a baby, so I showed her that she didn’t even reach my waist, and now she reaches my knees. We did a lot of tossing and turning and readjusting, and never quite got things right because she was really too tired. But by the time we put the girls to bed it was already today!

So I missed a day of posting in this NaBloPoMo of November…but it was for a good cause. I would rather be Olivia’s special friend than meet my deadline, for sure. Happy Tuesday.

Tiny houses

Tags

affordable housing, Lemon Cove CA, Portland OR, Tiny House movement

I first fell in love with a Tiny House back in the mid-1950s, when my best friend Jackie’s dad built a playhouse in the backyard for her and her little sister, Lucinda. It was a magical place, with a working doorbell, running water, lights, and curtains at the windows. It wasn’t as versatile as my canvas tipi, but oh — I coveted that little house.

Lately I have been intrigued by the burgeoning “Tiny House” movement, where people are building movable houses on flatbed trailers — not mobile homes or recreational vehicles, but self-contained homes that can offer affordability, a smaller carbon footprint, and a sense of adventure. As my involvement with homeless issues in Visalia has increased, Tiny Houses seem even more viable as independent living spaces for otherwise homeless people.

In Portland, Oregon, a Tiny House hotel has even developed. And in tiny Lemon Cove, California, just about 15 minutes from me, a tiny house subdivision will soon break ground.

Probably anyone who has seen my 25’x10′ rental storage unit, chock-full of “stuff”, would find my fascination with Tiny Houses laughable at best. But the part of me that longs to divest myself of said “stuff” and lighten both my mental and environmental load thinks that this is an idea that merits exploration.

Watch for Tiny Houses in a neighborhood near you.

Vacation from bedtime…the end

Tags

Harry Potter, staying awake, Thanksgiving vacation

Last night my granddaughters were having their Thanksgiving vacation from bedtime as I wrote my blog post. As I hit “publish” the big one was reading Harry Potter and the little one was just playing quietly on the couch. Both were enjoying staying up all night.

About 12:30, the big one fell asleep with Harry Potter on her face, and the little one crashed and burned. (I stayed up and read ’til nearly 3:00 a.m.) Fast forward to 10:00 this morning, when Lily woke up. Her first words: “I made it!” She was incredulous when her mother told her that she had been asleep for hours.

She did enjoy hearing that she was not the first of us to fall asleep reading Harry Potter, though, and loved hearing about my return-to-college habit of reading my textbooks on the couch and being awakened by having them smack me in the face as they fell out of my hands.

Another family tradition is born!

Thanksgiving vacation from bedtime

Tags

granddaughters, pillow fights, Thanksgiving vacation

I came home from work tonight to discover that my granddaughters had decided to stay up all night. Today was the last day of school until December 1, so they are celebrating. I followed the ruckus to their bedroom, where they were having a rollicking pillow fight, with lots of shrieking and giggling (their weapons were not only pillows, but a zillion stuffed animals, as well). Instead of micro-managing the fight, I decided to hide in my bedroom.

The oldest has declared that she intends to stay up all night every night this vacation week. It is already 11:30 p.m., and they are quieting down a bit; it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I know I’m not going to be on late-night duty. I will be in my bed, sound asleep (I hope).

Sweet dreams.

Today’s prompt

Tags

Boombersnitzel the bashful elf, NaBloPoMo

Today’s prompt for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) wants to know whether or not I have a book in me, aside from my blog. And if so, fact or fiction, related to my blogging or not. So here goes:

I had a book in me once upon a time. It was a children’s book — a fantasy about Boombersnitzel the Bashful Elf and his friend, the Fairy Felicity. I finished it years ago, but am not completely satisfied with the ending. It needs more work. It also needs illustrations, so I might set Lily on that task.

And I actually would like to turn my blog into a book someday. Not every single post, of course, but a select sampling. There is plenty of time to do that, however. And along the way I hope to keep improving my writing style and my voice. But right now I need to go to sleep! Sweet dreams.