missing the girls

I really miss the girls this Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.  They are such fun to be around.  Don't get me wrong; I LOVE spending time with my son.  He is awesome.  But there is something special about girl energy int he house...everything feels kicked up a notch.

Jordan, Meredith and Sprout had a wonderful Thanksgiving in NY with some of their dear friends hosting.  They've had a busy weekend as well if I am to believe their FB posts and their blog entries.  GOOD FOR THEM!!  This is the time in one's life (late 20's) to have this much fun!! Museums and movies and cooking and coffees out and walks with Sprout and knowing how to laze about and watch old TV shows.  They do it all and I LOVE them!!

Jordan

Meredith

Sprout

stuff i love/hate to read

I love reading blogs.  I enjoy (almost) all the different kinds there are out there.  I could spend an entire day (and almost have) scrolling hither and yon in cyberspace reading people's blog.  They are endlessly entertaining, amusing, shocking, sometimes disgusting and downright enlightening!!

I also LOVE to read people's comments to an e-vite.  The best one, maybe, so far is the response from someone I don't know to an e-vite for a friend's annual Holiday photography show.  This one read:


"I'd love to be there, but can't.  I'm shooting footage of mating baboons in Africa".  This was not a joke.

OK - that's a novel excuse for not making it to an event!  I give the writer credit.  When I RSVP in the negative - I usually write really boring things like - "So sorry not to be able to join you. Know that everyone will have fun.  Sending along best wishes for a joyous "(fill in the blank)".

I hate this sign that just popped up in my neighborhood.  Technically, the house in whose lawn this lovely thing is perched is in the adjacent 'community' from mine. There are two town home/condo 'communities' right next to one another.  The streets are shared, all blending together but one community (mine, which is called Briarcliffe) is all town homes.  The next door one is where I spotted this...

OK - who places a sign like this in their front yard?  And MUST we use such vulgar language to convey the message?  And WHY is 'please' abbreviated?  There is plenty of space to spell out the word!!

I am a good dog owner. I travel everywhere with the blue poop bags and I ALWAYS clean up after my dogs.  This morning, however, I could not resist being naughty.  Matilda, who has the cutest way of pooping (she hunches down and looks over her shoulder at you while 'doing the deed'), chose this very spot to relieve herself.  And...I DID NOT PICK IT UP!! 

If you look closely you can see the evidence...I know, I know...very bad!!  I actually had a wicked fantasy of collecting all the dog poop that I spotted on my morning walk (not everyone is as courteous and fastidious as I) and putting a bazillion blue bags (filled, of course) at the foot of the sign. Alas - I restrained myself.

Turkey Redux

Yesterday was an amazing day.  Maybe the first totally stress free Thanksgiving ever!!  The reason - lowered expectations!

Nat and I started the day by volunteering at Gobble Gobble Give - a 'feed the homeless' annual program.  I was amazed by the total casualness of the system and at the same time the complete smooth running organization. There were no sign in sheets, no name tags, no requirements really.  Just helpful, cheerful other volunteers wearing t-shirts that said 'Gobble Gobble Give' offering suggestions of how to find a place to do some good work.  We unloaded and folded donated clothing at long tables set up on the streets of Silverlake.  I really wanted to be in the 'food packaging up relay' but there were so many
people already doing that that we decided to deliver food instead.  I thought there would be maps and places identified as to where we should go to find homeless, hungry folk.  But no - our instructions were this:  "Drive around - you'll find people needing food".

WHAT???

So - that's what we did and it was awesome and awful.  Within  five minutes Nat spotted the first person in need but that gentleman declined our offer of food.  Hmmm.  After that 'hiccup' it was easy and oh so hard at the same time.  Easy to find homeless, hungry people and so hard to look them in the eye, smell them and hear their thanks and 'God bless yous'... in our ears and in our hearts.  Every stop made me cry.

Later, Nat and I feasted.  We called friends and family and then joined our neighbors in a rowdy game of Battle of the Sexes.  It was quite a perfect day.

Breast Cancer and Booze!

One of the harshest things someone said to me when I was going through treatment was that it was probably my own fault that I got breast cancer because after all - I was overweight and I enjoyed drinking alcohol. I took this comment to heart and blamed myself, in large part, for contracting this dread disease.  It didn't help (dissaude me from blaming myself) even though one of the friends I met on the journey (who has the same triple negative as I) is fit and thin and does not drink!! 

Research does show that alcohol use can (being the operative word) increase one's chance of getting breast cancer.  But NEW research shows that alcohol use can PROTECT one from metastatic disease once one has already had a breast cancer diagnosis.  At least - if you are a mouse!!

http://hometestingblog.testcountry.com/?p=17549

CHEERS!

 

Friends...silver and gold!

I LOVE my friends.   My friends have gotten me through some tough times.  They have been there to celebrate the joys with me.  My friends are a gift and I cherish them deeply.  Friends can come and go in our lives; like seasons.  That is okay...they are always present in our hearts. 

Today I am sharing with you some of the weird, funny, sentimental, deeply moving and quirky things my friends have posted on Facebook  in just the past few days....they are amazing.

• "Thanksgiving shopping begins: Off to pick up caul fat from Bristol Farms!" (Partner and now friend of dear friend that I met at work years ago.) 

• "The roads totally SUCK! Thankfully when I spun around, and around, and around, and I believe around again on Hwy 25, and landed inches from the ditch in the opposite lane, no on coming cars hit me. Cecelia in the back screaming MOM STOP PLEASE STOP! And that was only going 20 mph. Definitely time for a cocktail."  (Daughter and friend of friends from my college days.  Her parents were an inspiration to me and my spiritual teachers and mentors.  Their five daughters became my friends.)

   

• "i thank You God for most this amazing day:  for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes"(Friend from work.) 

• "I have found that stuff that wears on your nerves actually polishes your soul...at least something good comes out of something bad...." (Friend from college days.)

   

• "Rain! Oh, how I love you :)"(Friend from the Valley.)

   

• "2 years ago a dear friend from church had been very ill. One day after church he made a point to talk to me and asked if I would sing at his memorial service. In all my years of singing, I have never been directly asked to do this....it has always been the family to get me involved. Today, I made good on my promise. I will miss you dear Walt." (Friend from former church.)

   

• "Met the sun this morning...looking for some photo opps...rez blues...headed back to the city all too soon..." (Friend from New Mexico.)

   
  

• "On Veteran's Day my Dad put on his old uniform to march in the town parade in Oregon. He is 88 years old and was a navigator on B-17s in WWII. I am very proud of him!" (Friend and former spouse.)

   

• " found the other half of my brain today.... I thought it was lost" (Blogging world friend...met in person for first time yesterday!)

   
  

• "This is absolute insanity...just as I was about to cut an avocado the phone rang...sooo, I answered it...then hung up from the call 10 minutes ago and have been searching for the avocado ever since. Have I completely lost my mind AND the avocado?" (Friend I met while getting a pedicure!)

   

• "Dang -- I REALLY need to search flair for the right image for this week's almost finished blog post. But it's not loading. Put another way, the dog is still eating my homework..." (Friend from Divinity School.)

   

• "And to think that I have to remember to put on LIPSTICK!"  (Friend from church.)

   

• "Celebrating 29th anniversary with my sweetie at the Harraseekeet Inn brunch :)" (Friend from Connecticut.)

   

• "In memory of Darlene Rae Lindberg Hart, RIP Nov. 17, 2011, age 38" (Friend from the breast cancer world.)

   

• "Mercury is going retrograde on Nov 24th making machines and library patrons nuts. The way my electronics are behaving it's already starting." (Sister of one of my bridesmaids.)
  

"Make new friends, but keep the old - one is silver and the other gold!"

 

 

For This We Give Thanks...

I have always felt conflicted about Thanksgiving.  I am happy to spend time with family and friends, enjoy good food and share the blessings of our lives.  But the focus on FOOD and the requisite gluttony coupled with FOOTBALL has always left me a little unsettled, disturbed even.

It is easy for me to experience gratitude - I feel grateful for every day and all the richness and joy in my life with which I have been blessed.  I feel pain and sadness for the suffering, fears and loneliness of others.

And this year, I find myself without people at my table and without an invitation to share the feast with someone else.  At first, I felt a bit sorry for myself.  But instead of dwelling on that...I have decided to give back a bit on this day of thanks by volunteering at Gobble, Gobble, Give.  This is an amazing organization and I am so looking forward to the day....