Happy Halloween

Tags

candy, Happy Halloween, holidays, postaday2013, trick or treat

This is the first year that my hubby and I haven’t been home for Halloween. I won’t be answering the door armed with a basket full of all kinds of different candy for the trick or treaters, both tiny and big. I won’t be listening for Jack’s high pitched bark alerting me to new customers waiting for their candy. It is weird not having purchased loads of temptation to hand out to others. Actually I have to confess that last year, I filled our copper tub with bags of candy and taped a sign saying “Help Yourself” and that worked like a charm. This year the poor kids aren’t even getting that, I’m sure that they won’t cry too hard. Blandford is a very generous town when it comes to Halloween parties and candy giving.

I remember years of going door to door with my two no matter what the weather was, we trudged through snow, we braved the rain and we shivered through windy nights. There were two, I think, balmy Halloweens which were awesome, no freezing, it was bliss. My two loved Halloween, or at least coming back home to go through their stash, they loved that. So did I when my sister and I would come back home, to go through all of the candy, getting happier with each piece that turned out to be a favorite. My favorites, notice that there is more than one, were Snickers, Three Musketeers, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, M & M’s, Nestle Crunch, Hersey’s Kisses, Kit-Kat and Twix, quite a list don’t you think? This year for once I won’t have to be tempted for days by any leftover candy, that will be a change. Actually Halloween is usually the gate opener for the holiday season of copious eating because in just a few more weeks we have Thanksgiving to prepare for and then devour. Shortly afterwards comes Christmas and all of its own goodies. So the eating season commences for one and all, an American tradition in the best sense. Personally I can’t wait to start cooking pies, stuffing, birds and other delectable treats.

So Happy Halloween everyone, and for those who live across the ocean, have a piece of candy just for kicks, it’ll be yummy I promise. 🙂

Regret

Explain your biggest regret — as though to a small child.

I would not want to contaminate a small child's mind and psyche with the idea of regret. I think that regret is a toxic emotion and can get in the way of your life. Forgiveness is one of the biggest and best gifts that we can give to ourselves and others, that is a much better lesson to communicate to a small child than what regret is or what it does. I would talk about future choices and how since I went down one path in the past perhaps if I wanted a change later on, I could walk down a different path.

Small children should have the luxury of living in the present pure and simple. They have more than enough time to find out what life has in store later on, I would much rather spend my time with a small child being silly, laughing and listening to what they have to say. Small children are so much fun to listen to, I mean really listen to what they have to say, I miss that from my days as the French teacher in pre-school and Kindergarten. I loved sitting on the floor with them and inevitably one or two would crawl onto my lap and tell me what was on their minds. It was the best. I love babies, toddlers, children and animals.

In two minutes, the baby boy is born

Tags

birthday, children, writing

As I am typing these words, my iPad is showing the time to be 11:39, in two minutes twenty two years ago, our baby born was born at 11:41 a.m. Those numbers are emblazoned in my mind, the clock was right in front of me it seemed. It was 36 hours of hard back labor and 11:41 was the minute that I felt him liberated from my body and then silence. I asked why isn’t my baby crying and more silence, finally there was a cry and he was whisked away as was I, to a room with the nurse taking care of me. Eventually they brought our baby boy to me and I nursed him, my mother was there as was my hubby. My hubby had been with me the entire time as was the entire hospital, or so it felt like it. At one point I had two midwives, two nurses and a bunch of student nurses, Saint Vincent’s hospital was a teaching hospital so I guess my case was more interesting than others for the length, pain and natural aspect of it all. We went completely natural, which somewhere in the throes of pain I asked my hubby for something, anything to take the pain away. During those seemingly eternal hours of pain, I felt out of my mind with pain, I couldn’t formulate a single coherent thought, word, or anything, I felt reduced to instinct and animal feeling. So I begged him to go out to seventh avenue and find me anything that would take the pain away. He nodded and didn’t move, lol. Mother Nature is miraculous in her ability to release amnesiac chemicals in women’s brains that make them forget exactly how labor goes because women do it again. I have to say that the end result is completely and stupendously worth it. My hubby and I fell in love with our beautiful baby boy, the minute that he was a bump in my belly. We talked to him and used to watch him do his acrobatics in my belly, that was part of the problem in the delivery, he had tangled himself up with the cord because of his shenanigans, the little dynamo. He spent three days in neo-natal, all nine and a half pounds of him. After that he and I were inseparable, I was his food and he was hungry all the time, he grew it seemed exponentially, he eventually got the nickname the Michelin man. He had all of the rolls that make babies so cute and you want to just nibble on them. Now today he is a grown twenty two year old young man. Time flies incredibly fast, I remember his birth as if it were yesterday. It is truly amazing. Happy Birthday baby boy!

Flattery will get you everywhere

Write a post in the style of (or simply inspired by) a favorite author.

How I wish that I knew how to write in a way similar to that of William Shakespeare, that would be wonderful for me or so I assume that it would. I wonder how Shakespeare himself felt about his work, did he sit back after the last word was written and smile or did he jump from his chair and immediately round up the gang to make them run their lines on the stage? Either way, not bad for a writer or the bard.

In a few days time, actually two days to be exact, I am going to try to conquer and finish my novel. All that I have to do is imagine and capture what life in Manhattan New York 1925-1926 will mean to my heroine, the everyday life is what is giving me trouble, how exciting, how different, how scary, how troubling, these are the questions that I am struggling with, my book is never far from my thoughts, it isn't that I have given up, I have been ruminating on it for months now. I just will sit my buttocks on the chair and crack the words out come Nov. 1. Nanowrimo has served me well for two years now and hopefully the third time will be the charm and I will have a finished book to hawk to agents and publishers. One can only dream.

Dan Brown’s Inferno

Tags

books, Dan Brown, Dante, Inferno, postaday2013, writing

I am in the process of reading Dan Brown’s latest in the adventures of Professor Langdon “Inferno”. I personally like Professor Langdon as a character; he is kind, intellectual, quiet, gracious and charming, also very respectful of the ladies. I won’t give anything away since I am halfway through the book so I really can’t give anything away because the adventure is still unfolding as it always does with Dan Brown, he keeps you jumping until the very end. The setting this time is in Florence, Italy, a place that I had visited twenty five years ago and I loved the city, the food and the people. What I am immensely enjoying with the book is the guided tour of all of the museum’s, the brilliant artwork and the historical churches, when I was in Florence all those years ago, I was twenty one, I appreciated art but not to the point that I took advantage of where I was, I hadn’t any notion of the limitless wonders that I had at my feet. I would so love to go back to Florence now after finishing Inferno just to visit first hand, the places that Dan Brown describes so beautifully in his adventure. Florence the city should perhaps give Dan Brown financial compensation because I am sure that tourism would be on the upswing.

I vaguely remember reading Dante’s Divine Comedy in junior year English class during high school. Inferno is giving me a refresher course that is enjoyable since Dante didn’t come by his reputation by accident, his work is a masterpiece and I’m sorry that I came across it in high school, I’m sure that I would have appreciated it much more in college.

I have to say that reading this is a nice change of pace from what I have been reading in the past. I was caught up in historical biographies and Jared Diamond’s two incredible works “Guns, Germs and Society” and “Collapse”, none of which are light reading by any stretch, not that Dan Brown is light reading, he is just less serious.

On that last sentence, I will give one little tidbit, one of the crisis of the book is the question of human overpopulation and our planet. I have read about this issue since I majored in political science back in the 1980’s and the problems inherent in overpopulation. However, I saw fairly recently, a scientist who on the contrary was optimistic about the question of overpopulation and his view point was almost elegant in its simplicity if we were in a perfect world. His solution was to empower women globally, in every culture, every country and every society. Once women have the power over their education, their freedom and their careers; population concerns die back because population control goes to the source, women. If we as a world banned child marriages, sex trade, restrictions on women’s rights, and promoted birth control, education, freedom to vote and everything that men take for granted, our world would be much better off.

I am stepping down from my soap box, but this scientist gave me hope, women are the key.

Michelangelo’s YOU

Tags

artist, postaday2013, remembrance, sculpture

Your personal sculptor is carving a person, thing, or event from the last month of your life into the glistening marble of immortality. What’s the statue and what makes it so significant?

The only word that comes to mind is serenity. I would love to have an artist sculpt the word and its meaning into a piece to remember me by, because that is what I would like the last month of my life to be about, serenity.

Adventures in Boston

Tags

IPad, postaday2013, Posting, technolgy, writing

As I was walking to the Apple store on Bolyston Street in Boston, I looked up and I was taken with the beauty and clarity of the blue sky right above my head. Seeing the moon showing its face with a trail of pristine white streaking through the blue, I was compelled to take a picture.

I had to go to the Apple store because my iPad went into a coma again, this time to never see the light of day again. My tech genius Kevin was very helpful and kind, he replaced my iPad with a new one because the old one was at fault, no cost to me. So I am writing with my new iPad. I also went to an Urgent Care center because I self diagnosed myself with a kidney infection and I was correct, so I am on a strong dose of antibiotics and I should be as good as new in the coming week. A full day and the doctor told me that I need to rest and drink a lot of liquids, which I am doing and will do for the next week and beyond. Your body is your temple. I need to listen to that saying more often.

Blogger in a strange land

What’s the strangest place from which you’ve posted to your blog? When was the last time you were out and about, and suddenly thought, “I need to write about this!”?

I wouldn't say that I have posted form any place too strange or out of the ordinary. I post on a daily basis so that means where I go, my iPad and my iPhone go, my blog is mobile. However, I wouldn't call a moving car, a train, bus, airplane or terminal, bizarre locations. I have never posted anything from a bathroom. I would call that a little bit strange, just because when you are in the bathroom, you could damage your electronics and the bathroom should be a sanctuary, a place to rest your mind and focus on you and your body. Yes, I think that I would definitely call the bathroom the strangest place to post and I haven't done that as of yet. I doubt that I ever will, but never say never, because in the end, you never really know, do you?

An early birthday celebration

Tags

birthday, celebrations, dinner, food, postaday2013

Part of the reason for our New York weekend was to celebrate our baby boy’s birthday, since he will be turning 22 during this week, we wanted to celebrate together as a family and weekends are the best time for those. It still amazes me that my hubby and I have a son who is 22 and a daughter who is 19. However no matter how adult they think that they are, they still get all excited for their birthdays, they are so cute with their excitement. Our baby boy had a few requests for his birthday dinner; my brother-in-law face-booked him with questions as to what he wanted, since we were having the dinner at my sister’s house. First our son wanted the usual as a starter; rillettes de saumon (salmon spread) and then he picked roast beef, he asked for string beans, his favorite and my mother decided to get some tiny Yukon Gold potatoes to roast in the oven at the same time as the roast. Now for the best part, the baby boy asked for cheesecake, I didn’t have the time to make it at home so my mother went to our favorite patisserie La Cannelle to buy it.

When we got to my sister’s house the first thing that we all did was introduce ourselves and Jack to the newest member of my sister’s family, Harry their puppy. Harry is a rescue puppy, a mix of Retriever and either Beagle or Basset Hound, he is 8 months old and he is adorable. He is a little on the shy side and he and Jack played outside for a while and at first it was all play until it wasn’t and Jack felt it necessary to lay down the law. He didn’t like Harry sniffing at his backside and he made it known loud and clear. My brother-in-law and sister were really understanding about Jack putting his foot down, I was feeling as if Jack should have been more understanding but I realize that I was projecting unreasonable expectations onto our little Jack, a dog, not a human. They had some time in different rooms and then we they were reunited, it was all back to nicey-nice and sniffing and being together.

When we got around to the food, the roast wasn’t just any roast, it was a standing rib roast, all majestic and such, quite a sight to behold when it was pulled from the oven. The string beans and the potatoes were beautifully prepared and the juices that came with the rib roast were so delicious. When the rib roast was carved and brought to the table, it was mouth watering to look at, the slices were all cooked to rare to medium-rare and they were so tender. My niece and my nephew were watching the baby boy dip his bread into the accumulated juices on the platter which just happened to look like blood and they decided that they wanted to do the same so they kept asking the baby boy to dip their pieces of bread into the blood. My nephew was saying out loud and proud, blood tastes real good. It was funny, our little man has the gift of making everyone laugh. After a nice salad and great cheeses, dessert was served. We ate our cheesecake though we had one criticism, it was too sweet for our palettes, and like I said, it didn’t stop us from eating it.

We had such a wonderful dinner, I think that the baby boy was very happy with the weekend all around. I do have one thing to say, our Jack is sooooooooo happy being home. He is caput on the couch and probably will be tomorrow as well.

Daily prompt : The Golden Hour

Tags

dream, health, postaday2013, sleep, writing

6:00AM: the best hour of the day, or too close to your 3:00AM bedtime?

Oh 6:00 AM is not my friend and 3:00 AM is not a comrade either. I need a lot of sleep, I always have, even when I was younger. I know that I did chafe against my bedtime, but when I was in bed, I didn’t try to fight sleep, I let it come because I enjoyed sleeping, sleeping sometimes was more pleasant than being awake, what with nice dreams, cocooned under the covers all safe and sound. Who wouldn’t want to stay asleep?

The only reason that I ever complained about going to bed was because I was missing t.v shows, but my mommy in her infinite wisdom, knew that her oldest needed the sleepy time. What was amazing is that my little sister’s nickname was Dracula, my father came up with that one because getting her to fall asleep was a nightly battle and getting her up in the morning was no picnic either. It is a constant source of amazement that two children coming from the same parents can be so different. Well in the case of myself and my sister, it isn’t so surprising about our sleep differences, because I inherited my father’s capacity for sleep and my sister inherited my mother’s difficulties in sleep. Personally I think that I lucked out, sleep is such a luxury and so good for you. Sleep is your friend, embrace it, I do. 🙂