Google to the rescue!

What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

I searched for, found and then ordered three 3.5 – 4 lbs chickens from Joyce Farms after reading about how they have introduced a French breed of chicken here at their farm in North Carolina and they, as agreed to by their contract with the French government, let these chickens roam free, their feed is the same as they would eat if they were in France, meaning no GMO's in their feed and they haven't been bred to grow unnaturally fast, they get to live for at least 80 days whereas here chickens get 40 days and then they meet their maker. I wanted to see if their chickens would be as flavorful as what my aunts in France serve at home when I visit. Actually these chickens will be making a Thanksgiving debut on our table instead of the usual turkey. I have been reading too many horror stories regarding the average turkey and how they are raised, fed and housed. The only way to get away from those practices is to find yourself an organic turkey but I didn't feel like spending 120 dollars on our bird, so I went and invested on three chickens instead. I hope that they taste like they do in France, it will be nice to know that there is another option when it comes to chicken here.

So that is my latest culinary adventure or should I say part of the adventure, I still have to prepare them and serve them for Thanksgiving, that will be the proof in the pudding.

Intense

Describe the last time you were surprised by the intensity of a feeling you had about something, or were surprised at how strongly you reacted to something you thought wouldn’t be a big deal.

This is so embarrassing, I told you that I am a big fan of the soap opera General Hospital and I have many fond memories of watching it with my mother and my little sister growing up and even watching it with my grandmother when we would stay at her house.

There is a character on the soap who is insanely popular and her name is Robin Scorpio. She was introduced to the soap opera in the eighties as a six year old and she was an instant hit, she was so adorable, so precocious that I fell in love with her and over the years, her character developed into someone that I identified with, she rebelled against her parents when she felt that they were too strict, especially since she was a responsible student and she followed the rules, I empathized with her when she had her heart broken by unrequited love, I cheered for her when love won the day, I cheered for her when she followed her heart's dream and became a doctor.

Basically I grew up watching this character grow and evolve, becoming a great person within the world of General Hospital. That being said , I was completely caught off guard by how easily the tears came when Robin was "killed off" in General Hospital. Intellectually I knew it is a soap, it is a character, the actress is fine, Robin isn't my friend, she lives in t.v land or as I used to think when I was 4, in the little black box. Robin Scorpio was in the lab working on and completing a life saving serum for her good friend when the alarms went off due to a gas leak and her husband heard the alarm and was banging on the door trying to get her out, the doors were locked, they declared their eternal love for each other, tears are streaming down my face at this point, I am still hoping that she will escape and then BOOM she blows up in the lab and I boo-hooed. I was in shock, I am sitting there boo-hooing and I'm am telling myself, what is wrong with you, this is a soap opera, pull yourself together. I think that I cried for the entire week during the hours of 2 to 3 because everyone was devastated, Robin's husband, her mother, Anna, her uncle Mac, her father Robert and when her husband had to tell their little girl Emma, I lost it.

So yes this was an excellent example of how strongly I reacted to something that I thought wouldn't be a big deal. As I said in the first sentence, how embarrassing.

It builds character

Tell us about a favorite character from film, theater, or literature, with whom you’d like to have a heart-to-heart. What would you talk about?

I would love to spend an entire day speaking with Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I would ask him about his childhood in France, how was his relationship with his parents, what made him decide to join Star Fleet. If he had ever imagined to do anything else?

During all the years that I have watched Star Trek New Generation, I have seen the Captain listen to the Opera, play some instruments, go to the Holodeck and pretend to be a detective in the 1940's era so that would lead me to believe that Captain Picard may have entertained a future in the arts at some point and if this were true, what changed his mind and led him to change course and go to Star Fleet instead.

Maybe a day wouldn't be enough, a week perhaps, a long enough time so that I could just listen to that voice. His voice is what got me from day one and then his character traits; the nobility, the courage, the forthrightness, the integrity, the deep respect for others, the loyalty and the compassion, those qualities kept me coming back for more.

I love Captain Jean Luc Picard.

Daily prompt : Love to love you

Tags

Laughter, Love, loved ones, postday2013

What do you love most about yourself? What do you love most about your favorite person? Are the two connected?

The thing that I love most about myself is how easily I find humor and humorous situations. I adore laughing and I laugh at least once every day. I don’t have a gentle laugh, it isn’t elegant by a long shot. It is raw, loud and spontaneous, it comes from deep in the gut, exploding outwards, assailing some with its hyena-like sound. My family loves my laugh and my baby girl especially likes to brag it about it to her friends, she likes to think that my laugh is very contagious.

My hubby is connected to my love of laughter and humor, he is the main reason as to why and how I laugh every single day. He is so very funny and he knows me better than I know myself so I am constantly surprised and I erupt in spontaneous laughter. He records shows that he knows will get me gasping for air from non stop laughing.

They say laughter is the best medicine and so I have a brilliant physician for a husband because he keeps me well dosed in laughter and I am so very lucky and thankful for it.

Conflicted

You’re in the middle of a terrible argument, and everyone turns to you to help resolve it. How do you respond? How do you react to conflict?

First of all, it would hardly be me in the midst of any terrible argument because I shy way from conflict as if it were the plague. I do enjoy a spirited debate where everyone knows that it is in harmless fun and we are engaging in goodnatured verbal jousting, trying to "win" arguments by building the most persuasive arguments using facts and theories. I enjoy those because no one is angry, we are just trying to best each other in friendly competition. I especially loved the lively debates around my parents dinner table at every single one of their dinner parties, those were so much fun and no one ever went away angry, there was so much laughter and camaraderie at those parties, I have very fond memories of those.

Terrible arguments would have me running for the hills, yelling and hurtful insults, language just make me shut down, they always have, ever since I was little, I had a strong aversion to others yelling and getting very angry. I don't know why, my house wasn't a place of yelling and my parents didn't fight when I was little. I remember dreading going to school in second grade because my teacher would scream at the other students, I didn't get yelled at but her yelling at the others was enough for me to not want to go back to class.

So I'm sorry if everyone turned to me in the midst of a terrible argument, they would be looking at what you see in the cartoons, a whiff of smoke and me over three mountain tops away from the scene and everybody. I would be of no help whatsoever.

For tomorrow, we die

for tomorrow we die. The world is ending tomorrow! Tell us about your last dinner — the food, your dining companions, the setting, the conversation.

Just a little bit on the depressing side aren't we on this nice day. Ideally since it would be the last day for all of humanity I would want to have as many of my family gathered at my uncle's house as possible in France. I would want to replicate the joyous family celebrations that my uncle, my aunts have thrown over the years ever since I can remember. My hubby has been to a few, as my babies have as well, and they loved them. I think that from the last count we were at 80, so with this being the final celebration a few years later, I think that we may well be at 100 for the family dinner or the last supper.

We would start with the aperitif, where amuse bouches and canapes would be wandering on beautiful trays all around the terrace and the grounds of my uncle's house. There would be the usual open bar and the tables would be beautifully appointed outside along the gardens that surround my uncle's house. It really is a beautiful setting for a dinner party; the trees, shrubs and huge terra cotta pots filled with geraniums, bergonias, and impatiens. The menu would be fairly simple. We would start with coquille Saint Jacques gratinee and then we would have a refreshing tart salad to cleanse our palates. The coquille Saint Jacques would be presented in its scalloped shell with seafood and spring vegetables in a bechamel and Swiss cheese melted on top, it is delicious. The salad would be very light to counterbalance the richness of the first course. The main course would be my favorite; breast of duck served with a green peppercorn cream sauce with string beans sauted with garlic and steamed baby potatoes. We would then have a green salad and the cheese course and dessert would follow later.

The conversation would be never ending because my family has thousands of opinions and they aren't shy to share them which is what makes them so lovable. It would be a glorious day that turns into a glorious night which would have us greet the next day together as a family with each of us on our minds.

First

Tell us about your first day at something — your first day of school, first day of work, first day living on your own, first day blogging, first day as a parent, whatever.

I remember my first day at kindergarten, I walked into the classroom holding my mother's hand and I wasn't afraid, I was excited to be there. There were building blocks, a piano and kids everywhere. It was a very big room and I remember telling my mother that she could go now. I remember seeing my teacher and thinking that she was very pretty, she had long blond hair and later in the day, she sang for us and she had a beautiful singing voice. I know that the school was Lutheran, I didn't know it at the time or if I did, it didn't mean anything to me. I know that I saw the big man dressed all in black with a white collar and he was very nice. He was the principal of the school. I have memories of sitting around the piano while the teacher sang songs, we had painting, and blocks, there was nap time that I wasn't crazy about. I especially liked the painting time, I remember taking one of my paintings down by myself and folding it in half to see what it would do and the teacher thought that it was so very beautiful and hung it up.

Those are the few scattered memories of my first foray into school. I know that I didn't stay in kindergarten for long because I was very sickly during that year; I tortured my poor mother with a severe case of the chicken pox, a pneumonia, a heart murmur and a extreme case of canker sores where I could barely eat or drink, it was bad. I was the patient so I got to stay in bed, my poor mother had to take care of me and that must have been so difficult because I know that whenever my babies have been ill, I am miserable, I hate seeing my babies sick and not feeling well. Though I have been very fortunate in that my two were never as sickly as I was when I was young. I put my poor mother through the mill growing up, poor lamb.

So that was my first experience of school. I really did like kindergarten a lot.

Pep rally

We all know someone who could use a pep talk… so write them one!

The thought that keeps swirling around my brain as I look at this prompt, is that at the ripe old age of 46, I have learned a few lessons that actually make sense and work, at least for me. I think that one of the more difficult ones is to not run away from your problems. First of all you cannot outrun a problem, it doesn't have legs and more often than not, the problem is within yourself, not that anyone is a problem, but they may be approaching a situation incorrectly or irresponsibly, either way it can be fixed and that is what needs to be addressed, running away never solves the problem. Secondly running away doesn't necessarily mean literally running away, there are many forms of running away and each and every one of them is self-destructive.

Another lesson is that it is always darkest before the dawn and it is true. You may think that whatever is confronting you, scaring you or plaguing you is the worst possible thing in the universe where in reality, it is your fear that is giving whatever is challenging you, its outsize proportions. When you do confront the problem, it is amazing how less scary it actually is and how doable the solution can be, we are often our own downfall because we inflate things in our minds to insurmountable issues when,if one approaches it in peace and quiet, the solution is there, it may take time and discipline to achieve the results, but it can be done.

My perennial mantra is "and this too shall pass". Every impasse, every obstacle, it too shall be overcome, thought out or diminish with time. Things that might seem to be too much to bear today, in a few years time, will be remembered as not that bad.

My ultimate favorite remains "since everything works out in the end, if it isn't working out, then it isn't the end". That saying gives me the solace to take deep breaths when I think that it can't get any worse and I remember that worse is only what I make of it in my mind.

Everything is a matter of perspective, there are seriously some troubles that are very grave and can't be solved, however if one can think that things shall pass, tomorrow is another day, if today hasn't worked out, then that means there is always a chance for tomorrow to work out better, it has to be better than falling down the pit of despair and sorrow. Hope I think is the buffer against total sadness, all of my sayings have the theme of hope as its common thread.

I have been very down at certain times in my life and thankfully I have come away retaining my sense of optimism, it's a small spark, but better a small spark than none at all, I have to say that learning and believing in these sayings, has helped me to evade my depressive episodes.

I realize that this isn't the cheeriest of pep talks, I didn't feel in a very Rah-Rah mood, I preferred to write from the heart and give my take as to what works for me when I am feeling close to despair or close to giving up. That is when a pep talk is in order, this is what I came up with.

Seven wonders

Khalil Gibran once said that people will never understand one another unless language is reduced to seven words. What would your seven words be?

Just seven words, I am hungry and thirsty please thank you. That's seven words mind you and two of my basic needs would be voiced, but I don't know if that would be sufficient enough to have them met. Seven universal words is what I am assuming to be the exercise in question with this prompt and so I would venture that love would be one of the first, forgiveness is an important one, safety is a good one, compromise would be useful, peace is a huge plus, let's see, cooperation would be another excellent concept and patience would be my final word. These seven words: love, forgiveness, safety, compromise, peace, cooperation, and patience, I think if these were the core words in a universal language, then perhaps they would lead us away from the aggressive side of human nature. I can only think that they would do no harm at the very least. I realize that my words may be a little naive or too Koom ba yah for some, but there have been studies that language predetermines actions and tendencies. It would be difficult to act in a hateful manner when your language only has words defining love and patience.

Anyway these are my choices for the seven universal words.

Daily prompt: The perfect game

Tags

family, games, Monopoly, Poker, postaday2013

You’re set to play poker (or Scrabble or something else . . .) with a group of four. Write a story set during this game.

I don’t know which game I enjoyed playing more; board games or card games, I have very fond memories of playing both, often with the same group of players. When it comes to card games, I have had some fun poker games, rummy 500 games and a French card game called Belotte which my mother and my aunt like to play. In France we played a lot of card games, my cousin Leon, my sister and I would play poker on rainy days. My cousin always won, we never played for money because we didn’t have any, we played with matchsticks and my cousin always had the largest pile at the end of the game. Fast forward to more recent years with myself and my two babies spending time with my mother and aunt at my aunt’s house in France where we would play a game similar to rummy 500 for hours during the afternoon. Good times, my son and daughter never minded playing cards for hours at a time, we would laugh and talk about many things and be entertained by stories that my two would love to share with us.

When my sister and I were young we would play the two person game called Spit. It is a high paced card game where the deck is split equally between the two players, each player lays out their cards as if starting a solitaire game but with 5 columns instead of seven and then each player at the same time put down a card calling out spit and the object is to sequentially put your cards on the card and get rid of your cards in front of you. The person who gets rid of their cards onto the pile wins that round, it got crazy very crazy because you get caught up in the fast pace,,the competition and we would laugh and slam our cards down often fruitlessly, it was a lot of fun. One game that wasn’t as fun for my sister was the board game Monopoly and it was all my fault. I rigged Monopoly in my favor by taking advantage of the fact that I was the older sister and my little sister listened to me, it was wrong and to this day my sister dislikes Monopoly intensely, my bad. I was so wrong to do that.

Once when I was twelve or so my family and I went to the Cape of MA to visit with my uncle, my father’s brother and my cousin Eric and I played a marathon game of Monopoly which lasted three days. I lost and I think that it was that game that led me to my manipulative ways with the Monopoly rulebook that caused my poor sister such distress later on, I learned a poor lesson in sportsmanship, I am ashamed to admit.

My experience with Scrabble is pretty limited to playing with my hubby’s grandmother, she had lived most of her life deaf so Scrabble was the perfect game for her to play and she was a master at the game. When we played, she kept her beautiful Webster’s Dictionary right by her side and if she thought your word was iffy, the book opened immediately and her finger would glide down the pages until she found the word in question and she made sure that it was legitimate. No one took Scrabble more seriously than Grammy, I liked playing with her because she kept all of us on our toes.

On the whole I would say card games are my favorite, not only are the games entertaining but I like the feel of the cards themselves, they are shiny or not, some are well worn by the oils of many finger tips thumbing them and manipulating them. Even when playing alone, cards provide me a lot of enjoyment and challenges.