3 countries I’d like to visit and why

Tags

postaday2013, writing

Today is my fourth anniversary at WordPress. I have been posting every day for four solid years, hooray for me! It has become a tradition for me to re-post my first piece of writing on WordPress so that you can see where it started, all with a simple question “3 countries I’d like to visit and why” I have to say that WordPress made it very easy for me to keep posting with their wonderful series PostaDay. Those prompts generated thought and out of thought came words on a screen. I am so happy to be a member of such a great community of writers. Thanks for staying on the journey with me.

laurieanichols

I am re-posting my very first post on WordPress because this is the second anniversary of my blog and I thought that you would be interested to see how I started my blog. It was through the use of the Daily Prompt which inspired my answer; answering a simple question is a great way to get the writing flowing.

I had stumbled onto WordPress by sheer accident. I was reading something on the internet and I clicked on a link which got me to Black Water Dog’s blog and that got me to another blog written by Kolembo who is a brilliant poet and I said to myself “why not do this for myself?” So that is how I got here.

 

I know the 3 countries I’d like to visit and why, I just can’t give either of the 3 any priority due to the fact these would be…

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2013 in review

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postaday2013, stats, writing

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Another resolution free New Year

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optimism, postaday2013, resolutions, sadness, writing

These past few days, I have been reading a lot about other people’s New Year’s resolutions. They are everywhere; in all of the magazines, a variety of Blogs and even the Huffington Post. I suppose that resolutions and “best of” lists go hand in hand this time of year. I stopped making resolutions a long time ago. It isn’t because I think that I have achieved everything that I need to be, far from it. I just never found that making resolutions worked for me. I would eventually forget that I had made them, and if you forget about making a resolution, then really, what is the point?

My battle with control over my tendencies to fall back into anorexic behavior isn’t something that I can leave up to a once a year reckoning. This is something that I must be mindful of at all times, it goes hand in hand with my tendency to lapse into depression. Though I have to acknowledge that finding WordPress has helped me keep my depressions at bay and I am grateful for it. I know that writing has given me an outlet and I have found solace through this outlet. I may never be a writer, but writing has given me so much that it doesn’t matter.

I think that I like reading about what other’s are resolved to accomplish because I am curious, plain and simple. I am curious as to what makes people tick and making resolutions is one part of it. I know that one of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to quit smoking, I quit 6 years ago on November 1st. I had tried quitting so many times before, I probably made a New year’s resolution at one point, only to probably break it within days, but the last time has stuck. I think that my past failures with the smoking thing may have influenced my personal jaded view of resolutions.

All I know is that I have found a few strategies that help me and they are easy enough; eat a good breakfast everyday, walk briskly for at least twenty minutes every day if possible, write every day and be mindful of how my emotional and mental state are holding up. I have found that as long as my spirits are up, I can do everything that I set my mind to. It is so weird, I truly believe that at my core, I am an optimist, but I have this small part of me that is so dark, sad and heavy and it sometimes takes so much work to make it stay locked away. I seriously hate that part of my psyche, I wish that I could just flush it out, but it doesn’t work that way. Thank goodness for writing, that’s all that I have to say.

Daily prompt: Moment of clarity

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breathing, calm, postaday2013, thinking

Tell us about a time you’d been trying to solve a knotty problem — maybe it was an interpersonal problem, a life problem, a big ol’ problem — and you had a moment of clarity when the solution appeared to you, as though you were struck by lightening.

The main thing that this prompt brings to mind is that no matter what kind of problem may have presented itself to me, as long as my mind was racing, solutions weren’t coming. It has always been my experience that as soon as I calmed my mind, that was when I could find a way to solve whatever headache or trouble was plaguing me at the moment.

It works for any kind of problem, I vaguely remember dealing with logistical problems the many, many times that we moved and it was only when I took deep breaths and thought about the problem as a puzzle that it loosened up my thinking and the solutions most often came along fairly easily.

This realization took awhile for me to figure out, I always found solutions when I was younger, but the costs were headaches, stomach problems, frayed nerves and restless nights. As I got older and gained life experience, my eyes opened up to the possibility that it doesn’t have to be so hard. A lot of the hardship is in the mind, because mostly through fear and insecurity, I amplified the issues and the consequences. When I would tackle whatever was on my plate calmly and head on, that was when I saw that it wasn’t as horrible as I thought that it was going to be, I had stressed myself into a panic for the wrong reasons.

I can’t be more specific because I can’t remember much of the troubles that I have gone through, not enough to go into interesting detail, I only remember the lessons that I have learned along the road. Don’t rush into much of anything, take a minute to breath and calm your mind. Remember that putting things off does not make them easier to deal with, running away never makes the issue go away and nothing is impossible to overcome. I’m not saying that it won’t be difficult or painful, but it can be overcome.

Breathing is good, calm and peace are wonderful and you are your own best friend.

Home sweet home

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Christmas, Home, postaday2013, travel

We are back home in Massachusetts. Jack was one happy camper when he saw out house as I pulled into our driveway. He is always happy being with us, but he is infinitely happiest when he is back in his house with his backyard and all of his perches. He loves his couches, his beds and his lounge chaise. I love our fireplace in the living room.

The drive back was uneventful except for the one time that the car from the middle lane tried to come over to the left lane and the very spot that I was presently occupying, I didn’t panic, I veered quietly to the left and sped up to get out of his way, all the while making sure that I was clear of any other option that I might have needed. The baby girl and my hubby were barely aware, my hubby actually looked up after I had finished with my maneuvers and said “Good save”.

Other than that, we are safe and sound at home. As soon as we came in, I turned the Christmas light back on, to make it more festive, the days after Christmas are so anti-climatic, a little light brings much needed cheer.

Doing Fifth Avenue with the baby girl

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New York City, pictures, postaday2013

How better to continue with the Christmas celebrations than a stroll down Fifth Avenue to see all the window decorations and Rockefeller Center. I left Jack with my mother and my hubby and apparently, Jack was miserable the entire time that I was gone. My mother tried her best to distract little Jack with food and his squeaky toys, but to no avail, he was according to her, shaking and trembling from deep within his core. This was happening and I had no idea, I was with my baby girl and we were having a nice time walking down Fifth Avenue, I do have to admit that at one point near Rockefeller Center, I was close to losing it, the crowds were so intense that I was feeling claustrophobic and I wanted to push someone out of my way so that I could escape the sea of humanity.I was feeling like a caged prisoner who had to escape no matter what. Once we were past Rockefeller Center, the crowds had thinned out and I felt much better, this is a huge part of why I have adopted Boston as my new favorite city, the streets rarely ever get clogged and crowded like this by any means. I have patience but when I feel trapped, I lose whatever huge amounts of patience I normally have, my baby girl is well aware of this and she helps, simply by the fact that she calls me on it, and teases me about it which helps me by putting my entire reaction to the situation in proper perspective, she really helps me.

The baby girl took quite a few pictures of our journey down Fifth Avenue and one of the pictures that she took is an upward looking picture of the facade of 9 West 57th Street, this is my favorite building in the city, my husband renovated much of the interior, but what I love is the exterior facade, an excellent example of simplicity and elegance.

New York City is beautiful this time of year and even if I am crazed by the overwhelming crowds, I can’t deny how vibrant and exciting this city is and how it offers something to everyone, all you have to do is look.

Celebrating Christmas in New York

Tags

Jack, postaday2013, toddler, travel

The baby boy couldn’t come down to New York with us due to both his work and music commitments so Jack came in his stead. The four of us drove down, we left in snow and arrived to clouds and slightly higher temperatures. Last night after we had our Christmas dinner and I cleaned up, I packed up my overnight bag, which with all of my traveling recently is more or less always ready to go, the baby girl has been packing her own bag for years now. That leaves Jack and packing for him is just like packing for a toddler. He has his own travel bag and I make sure that his wee wee pads are packed, both his water and food bowls, his toys, his food, his treats and his coat are all packed. I remember doing the same for both the baby boy and the baby girl, but it has been years since I have had to pack as much necessary stuff. Jack brings all these happy memories to the forefront, our little baby Jack. He is a cutie. Even my mother thinks so and she was the one who held out like the trooper she is against getting a puppy. He makes himself right at home and she doesn’t even mind. I suppose it’s because she knows that he isn’t a permanent addition, just a temporary visitor.

Jack says Thank You Santa!

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Jack, postaday2013, presents, Santa

Merry Christmas to all of my WordPress friends and to everyone out there in our beautiful world! Jack was one lucky little puppy this Christmas. Santa left him two presents under the tree and something in his stocking and boy was Jack happy this morning.

We had a very nice Christmas morning, we watched the Year without a Santa Claus together. I think that we were the most excited for Jack’s presents because he is our baby and Christmas is always the most fun when little ones are involved. Jack is our little one.

Merry Christmas to all!

A very happy Christmas Eve to everyone!

Tags

Christmas Eve, dinner, food, menu, postaday2013

I wish everyone a very happy Christmas Eve because without Christmas Eve, we wouldn’t have Christmas morning. Personally, I think that I prefer Christmas Eve, it is so full of potential and hope, a beautiful and exciting feeling that can’t be recaptured once Christmas morning rolls around. In terms of celebrating and food, it is just as special as Christmas Day dinner.

Tonight’s menu is simple this year, it’s just the four of us so we are starting with shrimp cocktail, pate and French bread and then we will have rack of lamb with asparagus. There is salad and cheese if we want, and for dessert there is cheesecake, but I’m fairly sure that we will wait until tomorrow to dig into the cheesecake, it always does better with an overnight set in the refrigerator. If we want dessert, there is ice cream in the freezer and my hubby bought me Nestle cookie dough, my Kryptonite. We got home from last minute shopping and I put everything away and got to work on the cheesecake, in the back of my head, there was a voice coming from the refrigerator, it was saying “this is your cookie dough calling, come and slice off a big hunk, I taste so good, you know that you want me” And what do you think I did? Just like in the cartoons when you see the hapless person following the floating tendrils through the air to the refrigerator, I succumbed to my weakness, raw cookie dough. For shame, oh well, it’s not as if I do this everyday. I still have a little bit left. It just tastes so good going down.

We are enjoying our quiet Christmas Eve, Jack is hopping back and forth between each of us, depending on who has a smackeral in their hand, the little scamp.

Re-discovering umbrellas

Tags

Boston, New York, postaday2013, sidewalks, umbrellas

Today my hubby had meetings in Boston so we drove off to Boston in crazy, hard hitting rain. The temperatures were warmer up in our mountains in the west, 45 degrees as opposed to what we arrived into, 33 degrees of cold rain. My hubby who is always prepared, had his gorgeous large, black, old fashioned umbrella in the trunk and he graciously let me use it, while he went to his meetings wearing his waterproof anorak.

While we were driving towards Boston, I did make it a point to ask if I could use the umbrella and my hubby said that he was proud and excited by the fact that I cared enough to use the umbrella. This is important to know to fully appreciate why me walking in Boston with an umbrella is such a change of pace for me.

Growing up in Astoria and commuting to and fro from Astoria to New York City, I spent years walking up and down practically every single avenue in New York City amongst the other millions of people on a daily basis. Now on cold days, hot days or cloudy days, the people congestion never ever bothered me. It was only during the rainy days that the sheer numbers of people occupying the same sidewalk as I, drove me mad. Umbrellas and people do not mix safely, you can seriously lose an eye. So throughout my years as a pedestrian I shied away from umbrellas. I developed an intense dislike towards umbrellas.

Until today that is. I have to say that walking down the streets in Boston with my hubby’s very large and protective umbrella, I really enjoyed my walk. I did not once have to move umbrella up or down or from left to right. I was able to walk normally without worrying about losing an eye, it was quite civilized I tell you.

New York is thrilling, exciting and unlike many other cities. Boston is now more my speed, leisurely, relaxing and less tumultuous.