Whoa!
The Lost season 5 finale!
Whuh?
The Lost season 5 finale!
I'm going on vacation...talk amongst yourselves.
15 years ago
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Things my mother taught me
I will be out of town for Mother's Day -- spending it with my mom! Yay! She's 86 years old, still living on her own - cooking, cleaning, shopping, driving. She's one of the Steel Magnolias.
My friend jo loves lists, and Facebook has me thinking in groups of 5, so here's a list of 5 of the most important things that my mom has taught me:
1. Not just how to cook, but how to enjoy cooking. She isn't a gourmet cook with fancy sauces and 100 ingredients, but she's inspired me from a very sound foundation: throwing together a yummy and nutritious dinner in no time flat, and often with limited resources, is a skill my whole family appreciates. I just wish I could master her cornbread. It's unequaled and continues to hover just out of my grasp.
2. How to be patient.
"Patience is a virtue." This one was repeated like a mantra throughout my life -- in fact it still echoes in my head when needed. Helps me in my life, in my work and even in the kinds of hobbies I've grown to love. Just stopping to breathe, count to ten before responding, the power of the pause. All these things harken back to simply having patience.
3. How to sew.
Mom made a lot of my clothes growing up. Mostly out of necessity -- Dad was a teacher and she was a SAHM (like most of the era), so we lived quite frugally (another lesson for another list). and for a while - blissfully brief, in the grand scheme of things - I made many of my own clothes. And it's some comfort to know that if it ever came to it, I could again. When I was a little girl I had, as most little girls of that and subsequent eras have, a Barbie doll. But we didn't have the resources for all the accoutrement like the Dream House or the wardrobe. Not to buy them, anyway. But my Barbie had a designer wardrobe, and I was the designer - even down to the wedding dress. And she had quite the 'apartment' too. Sure, it may have looked like an orange crate from the outside, but it was painted and furnished with great elan (again, from the House of Me). I still think that I've fared far better in life from having to exercise my imagination and develop those crafting skills than I would have benefitted by frequent trips to ToysRUs to buy the latest and greatest.
4. How to love.
Mom and Dad had been married for almost 60 years when Dad died. Their marriage survived the kinds of things that marriages everywhere face...kids, financial challenges, differences of opinion, illness, death...they just dealt with it and kept going. To the very last, even when sitting in their living room watching TV, they'd be holding hands. I never had to doubt that my parents were deeply in love with each other, and always loved us. When my father died, I opened the eulogy with "The best gift a father can give his children is to love their mother. This my father did, in abundance." And mom loved him right back...and still does.
5. How to keep going.
I'm a firm believer in the premise that life doesn't hand us anything that we don't have the resources to handle. I've learned this from watching her. It may be a struggle to martial those resources sometimes, but you do it and you soldier through. Mom occasionally has surprised me with her perserverance, and sometimes to some it may look a little like martyrdom, but if you really know her you know that it comes from an abiding committment to never giving up. No matter what.
She's taught me a billion additional little life lessons in my 58 years, and God willing has many more to offer, but these 5 speak most to the core of who I am and how I live.
What has your mom taught you?
My friend jo loves lists, and Facebook has me thinking in groups of 5, so here's a list of 5 of the most important things that my mom has taught me:
1. Not just how to cook, but how to enjoy cooking. She isn't a gourmet cook with fancy sauces and 100 ingredients, but she's inspired me from a very sound foundation: throwing together a yummy and nutritious dinner in no time flat, and often with limited resources, is a skill my whole family appreciates. I just wish I could master her cornbread. It's unequaled and continues to hover just out of my grasp.
2. How to be patient.
"Patience is a virtue." This one was repeated like a mantra throughout my life -- in fact it still echoes in my head when needed. Helps me in my life, in my work and even in the kinds of hobbies I've grown to love. Just stopping to breathe, count to ten before responding, the power of the pause. All these things harken back to simply having patience.
3. How to sew.
Mom made a lot of my clothes growing up. Mostly out of necessity -- Dad was a teacher and she was a SAHM (like most of the era), so we lived quite frugally (another lesson for another list). and for a while - blissfully brief, in the grand scheme of things - I made many of my own clothes. And it's some comfort to know that if it ever came to it, I could again. When I was a little girl I had, as most little girls of that and subsequent eras have, a Barbie doll. But we didn't have the resources for all the accoutrement like the Dream House or the wardrobe. Not to buy them, anyway. But my Barbie had a designer wardrobe, and I was the designer - even down to the wedding dress. And she had quite the 'apartment' too. Sure, it may have looked like an orange crate from the outside, but it was painted and furnished with great elan (again, from the House of Me). I still think that I've fared far better in life from having to exercise my imagination and develop those crafting skills than I would have benefitted by frequent trips to ToysRUs to buy the latest and greatest.
4. How to love.
Mom and Dad had been married for almost 60 years when Dad died. Their marriage survived the kinds of things that marriages everywhere face...kids, financial challenges, differences of opinion, illness, death...they just dealt with it and kept going. To the very last, even when sitting in their living room watching TV, they'd be holding hands. I never had to doubt that my parents were deeply in love with each other, and always loved us. When my father died, I opened the eulogy with "The best gift a father can give his children is to love their mother. This my father did, in abundance." And mom loved him right back...and still does.
5. How to keep going.
I'm a firm believer in the premise that life doesn't hand us anything that we don't have the resources to handle. I've learned this from watching her. It may be a struggle to martial those resources sometimes, but you do it and you soldier through. Mom occasionally has surprised me with her perserverance, and sometimes to some it may look a little like martyrdom, but if you really know her you know that it comes from an abiding committment to never giving up. No matter what.
She's taught me a billion additional little life lessons in my 58 years, and God willing has many more to offer, but these 5 speak most to the core of who I am and how I live.
What has your mom taught you?
Friday, May 1, 2009
Happy May Day!
May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii. When I first moved here there would be kiosks of lei sellers all round Fort Street Mall across from my office. If I see any today, I'll add pictures.
Ladies would all wear beautiful flowy muu muu and it was all very lovely. We've gone all mainland-style these days, with most folks in office casual (or worse) and it's a rare occasion to see the ladies all decked out. I still wear my muu muu on Aloha Fridays, though. Holding on to a more graceful time of which I was never really a part.
In my youth I wore what we called 'grannie gowns' -- the long flow-y dresses -- as often as I could get away with it. So graceful.
But pretty. Always colorful and pretty. I could never get into the whole sister-wife garb. Not graceful at all. And I don't have enough hair for that pompadour anyway.
Ladies would all wear beautiful flowy muu muu and it was all very lovely. We've gone all mainland-style these days, with most folks in office casual (or worse) and it's a rare occasion to see the ladies all decked out. I still wear my muu muu on Aloha Fridays, though. Holding on to a more graceful time of which I was never really a part.
In my youth I wore what we called 'grannie gowns' -- the long flow-y dresses -- as often as I could get away with it. So graceful.
But pretty. Always colorful and pretty. I could never get into the whole sister-wife garb. Not graceful at all. And I don't have enough hair for that pompadour anyway.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Pretty day
Whoa!
Make that Whee!
We dodged some dodgy weather and now the sky is a beautiful blue with little innocent clouds and light breezes. Time to recharge my personal solar battery. Not rocking the killer tan these days (realizing that the operative word was, indeed, killer), but still need a half hour now and again just to spruce up a bit. Plus, it's a sin to let this gorgeous day go to waste when I could be lolling about in it.
Whuh?
Why does PayPal innundate me with spam every single time I use it? I'd use it more if it would just leave me alone! Same is true of charities. Give to one and they sell your name to a jillion others. I wish they'd consider my donation the savings in postage and printing they'd get if they'd take me off the mailing list.
Pretty cool when that's the only thing chafing me at the moment. Of course, there's politics, but I'm not going there. Not here.
Make that Whee!
We dodged some dodgy weather and now the sky is a beautiful blue with little innocent clouds and light breezes. Time to recharge my personal solar battery. Not rocking the killer tan these days (realizing that the operative word was, indeed, killer), but still need a half hour now and again just to spruce up a bit. Plus, it's a sin to let this gorgeous day go to waste when I could be lolling about in it.
Whuh?
Why does PayPal innundate me with spam every single time I use it? I'd use it more if it would just leave me alone! Same is true of charities. Give to one and they sell your name to a jillion others. I wish they'd consider my donation the savings in postage and printing they'd get if they'd take me off the mailing list.
Pretty cool when that's the only thing chafing me at the moment. Of course, there's politics, but I'm not going there. Not here.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Beauty is in the ear of the beholder, I guess
Whoa, with a side of whuh??
All this fuss about the magnificent performance by Susan Boyle on the UK talent show got me thinking. She has a spectacular voice, but all the buzz is about how nobody expected her to be so talented. Why? Because she's not pret-ty.
I mean, how could such an "unattractive" person have anything of value to offer in our pretty pretty world?
We have hoards of people who make fortunes by simply being pret-ty, with no discernable talent. Hollywood offers a veritable smorgasbord of beautiful banal.
And there are whole industries built around the quest for physical "perfection".
What if people put the time, thought, money and effort into cultivating their voice, their brain, their better self that they put into botox, wax, collegen implants, tucking/sucking, makeup and hair care? Whoa!
There are tons of pret-ty people out there with no talent. And we pay them just to be pretty.
I wonder how many more undiscovered and unlauded but greatly talented people there are out there that are missed simply because they aren't pret-ty enough.
My applause to Susan not just for her voice, but for the moxie to put it out there in spite of the snickers and derision. For showing that the packaging simply just doesn't count when the content is stellar.
All this fuss about the magnificent performance by Susan Boyle on the UK talent show got me thinking. She has a spectacular voice, but all the buzz is about how nobody expected her to be so talented. Why? Because she's not pret-ty.
I mean, how could such an "unattractive" person have anything of value to offer in our pretty pretty world?
We have hoards of people who make fortunes by simply being pret-ty, with no discernable talent. Hollywood offers a veritable smorgasbord of beautiful banal.
And there are whole industries built around the quest for physical "perfection".
What if people put the time, thought, money and effort into cultivating their voice, their brain, their better self that they put into botox, wax, collegen implants, tucking/sucking, makeup and hair care? Whoa!
There are tons of pret-ty people out there with no talent. And we pay them just to be pretty.
I wonder how many more undiscovered and unlauded but greatly talented people there are out there that are missed simply because they aren't pret-ty enough.
My applause to Susan not just for her voice, but for the moxie to put it out there in spite of the snickers and derision. For showing that the packaging simply just doesn't count when the content is stellar.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Happy Easter!
Whoa!
Was I not just the cutest little kid ever! This is 1953. Dad was a principal of an elementary school in a coal town in Virginia, mom was a mom and I was an only child. And a well indulged only child from the looks of it.
Hat and gloves and a frock coat...oh my!! The outfit was navy with pink trim and I wish I could remember what that toy in front of the basket was. There are some limits to my grasp of trivial detail.
And thank heavens the cankles went away as my legs got longer. Even in my current state of excess, my (lower) legs are quite shapely. Then it goes all wobbly.
Whuh??
I had a tooth (one) go seriously wonky on me in February -- much pain and discomfort, very hard to eat. To resolve this problem (pain in A tooth and difficulty eating) I am now in braces and a bite plate. So I have pain in many teeth, apparently randomly, for the next 2 years and find it intensely annoying to eat just about anything but juice-cicles and smoothies. Everyone says "you'll get used to it." Okay. For now I'm taking their word for it.
One good thing about the bite plate...I am a grinder (causing much of my current woe) and yesterday was a serious grind kind of day. But no headache!!
No jelly beans or peeps for me, but that just helps me to keep my focus on the true purpose of the day. Redemption. And being worthy of it.
Have a blessed Easter.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
I love Wednesdays!
Whoa!
Ben-centric Lost episode tonight. Many others will blog this to death, so I don't really need to. But I'm loving the new smiley confident Locke. And I still wouldn't turn my back on Ben if I was him.
Whuh??
Pirates. Somalian (?) pirates?? Amazing! Have you seen these pirates? We aren't talking Johnny Depp-ish scary dudes buckling swashes with a big ass barkentine. We're talking half a dozen guys in motorboats with machetes and rifles. And why is this allowed to be a problem??? Can't these shipping companies afford armed security on board?
Ben-centric Lost episode tonight. Many others will blog this to death, so I don't really need to. But I'm loving the new smiley confident Locke. And I still wouldn't turn my back on Ben if I was him.
Whuh??
Pirates. Somalian (?) pirates?? Amazing! Have you seen these pirates? We aren't talking Johnny Depp-ish scary dudes buckling swashes with a big ass barkentine. We're talking half a dozen guys in motorboats with machetes and rifles. And why is this allowed to be a problem??? Can't these shipping companies afford armed security on board?
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