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 |  New blog for a new year |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Every year is a gift: a clean white canvas on which you can draw new elements, a crisp blank sheet of paper to write another chapter, or an empty space where you can play and pray. ~ Catherine Moore ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain |
| A nod, a bow, and a tip of the lid to the person who coulda and shoulda and did. ~Robert Brault "A Poem Missing the Word Woulda," I finally got around to writing and addressing my holiday cards. Even though they’re so late I think they’re okay. In fact they’re more like winter cards. There’s a snowman on the front and the words “Let it snow.” The verse inside says “Wishing you warm winter moments and bright Christmas memories.” That sounds to me like an after Christmas card. And I’m sending them before spring, too. I even wrote a couple of fairly lengthy letters in longhand. It’s been a long time since I’ve written that much by hand. I used to have pretty nice handwriting but I use it so seldom now that it doesn’t quite look the same. Oh, I scribble in my journal sometimes and I can write out a legible check, but I’m definitely out of practice. I’m pretty good at spelling, and even picky about it, but as I wrote these letters today I felt a great yearning for my spell check. You know how sometimes you write a word and it doesn’t quite look right? It’s so easy to check and change when I’m typing away on the computer, but not so easy after it’s written pen to paper. I can only hope my friends will understand if I goofed up a few words. Maybe they’ll be so shocked that they got a letter at all that they won’t even notice. It really does feel good to finally check that item off my mental to-do list. It’s been nagging me for a long time. It wouldn’t be so bad if it hadn’t been ages since I’ve sent any cards and letters at all. It’s been so long I don’t even remember how long it’s been. So anyway, I finally did it. They’re even sealed and stamped and by the door ready to go in the mail. I’ve been known in the past to write a letter or address a card and let it lay around until it’s old. In fact I found a Christmas card addressed to my nephew in the bottom of a drawer that had probably been there a couple of years. (What a slob!) Well, anyway, it’s really truly done for this year and for that I am proud. And relieved. Now I just have to face the 364 other things I’ve been putting off. We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once. ~Calvin Coolidge |
| Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs. - David Ben Gurion When I was a kid watching Rocky and Bullwinkle I loved Peabody’s Improbable History. Each episode the talking dog Mr. Peabody took his young human student Sherman on a trip in the WABAC Machine to set history straight. Last week I jumped in the WABAC Machine and actually changed my own history, or at least set it straight. In my previous entry I pushed the envelope and shared a very significant time in my life. And I thank you all for your comments. As always when I expose myself, I wanted to pull back into my shell to recover and not come back out until it was safe again. I didn’t really let myself do that this time though. Instead, by jumping in the WABAC Machine I transformed myself from a scandalous teenager into a Pioneer. Let me tell you that it feels much better now back here in the present. And I certainly plan to keep that machine handy in case I need it again. I also decided that I would expose myself a little more right now. I have a lot of company on Facebook going retro, too, but if you notice the outfit in this picture you’ll see that it’s more revealing than most. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** http://www.tvacres.com/dogs_cartoons_peabody.htm |
| I was born by the river In a little tent And just like the river I've been running ever since It's been a long, long time coming But I know a change gonna come Oh, yes it is Sam Cooke When I was a sophomore in high school I had a relationship with a boy of a different race. This was in the early 1960s and absolutely unacceptable in those times. Even if my parents could have accepted it, which they couldn’t, the whole little town was appalled. They gossiped, of course, and made up outlandish tales about us. It was much more innocent than they wanted to believe. Many people took it upon themselves to do something about it. I can’t even begin to revisit all that right now. The whole episode had a huge impact on my life and for years I couldn’t even speak of it. It’s still not easy. My ex-husband used that time in my life as a weapon against me, but that’s a whole other issue. I will say that because of my experience I have nothing but awe for our President’s mother. Anyway, needless to say you cannot have a forbidden relationship without sneaking around. One of my girlfriends was kind of a go-between for G and me. Neither she nor I still live in that town and we haven’t seen each other for years. Lately we’ve been chatting on Facebook, catching up with each other’s lives. One day an old memory popped into my head about how she used to sing the first few lines of that Sam Cooke song “A Change is Gonna Come.” The song was popular back then and became a theme song for the civil rights movement which was going strong. On Sunday I was on Facebook and my friend popped up in chat to tell me she’d gotten a strange message on Classmates.com. It was from him and he asked her if she ever talked to me or knew where I was. It scared her a little bit and I guess she felt protective of me. The funny thing is I felt like I’d been expecting it so I was not surprised at all. Not long after her message I got an alert from Classmate.com which I rarely visit. It was him and his message was short. He asked how I am, said last he heard I was married and living in Indy, he’s in California, and he hopes I’m happy. After my divorce he called me and we talked a few times but that’s it. Jack is nothing like my ex-husband, but he is human. Because of him I wouldn’t pursue a friendship with G even if I wanted to, and I don’t. It’s been a long, long time since our bittersweet relationship with a lot of history in between. But I do like to know that he’s all right. I told him I’m very happy and I hope that he is healthy and happy, too. It is really out of my comfort zone to share this even after all these years. However, sometimes people come into our lives and things happen when we need them, because it’s never too late to heal on a new level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Change_Is_Gonna_Come_%28song%29 |
| I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s a reason I’m saying it again. There are three shows we watch on television on Friday night. Ghost Whisperer, Medium, and Numb3ers. I’m not a big believer in the supernatural (although I do believe in math) but the shows are fun to watch. The character development is really well done in all the shows. Last night Medium had a subplot I thought was pretty funny and one that writers and readers can appreciate. In case you don’t watch the show (hmm what are the odds?) I’ll give a little background. Allison Dubois is a psychic who dreams about actual murders and events as well as sees ghosts. She works for the prosecutor’s office and I have no idea how they would solve a case without her. Her husband Joe and she have three daughters with the oldest in high school. Joe is an engineer who recently was downsized from his firm and found a new job. The subplot is about Joe. Joe’s new supervisor is a young geeky guy who invites Joe to lunch one day to talk about something. It’s the day before Joe’s first performance evaluation, but the boss assures him that isn’t why he wants to see him. At the restaurant the boss kid orders “the usual” and Joe says he’ll have the same. The waitress asks Joe if he was sure, and he is, so she bringst out two chocolate milks and says the rest of the meal will follow. (It turns out to be PBJs.) The boss says he knows Joe is a “regular guy” and that’s why he wants him to read his novel and give him his opinion. Then he pulls out a flash drive that’s hanging around his neck and plunks it on the table. “There it is.” That night at home Joe wades through the first hundred pages of this nine hundred page opus that “sucks like a Hoover” and wonders what he’s going to tell his boss. He thinks at least the timing is good since he couldn’t possibly finish it yet and won’t have to risk offending his boss before the evaluation. So the boss walks into Joe’s office the next morning and asks him what he thinks. “Well, I only got through the first hundred pages…” “Oh, you were able to put it down?” Joe stammers around and tries to convince him that he really doesn’t want to say anything until he finishes the whole book. But the kid won’t rest until Joes gives him something: a word, an adjective to describe the book so far. He assures him it won’t affect his evaluation. Reluctantly Joe struggles for a word and comes up with… Diffuse. You can imagine this doesn’t set well with boss who repeats the word several times as he walks out the door. Later when Joe goes to Human Resources for his evaluation the kid is sitting there, too, sulking and biting his nails. The HR man tells Joe how nice it is for the supervisor to be there and how excited they were at the firm when Joe started to work there. However, he says, it appears you’re “having trouble adjusting.” Joe is confused until he sees his file where every comment about his performance is the word Diffuse. It ends well, though. Joe challenges his boss and they work things out in a childlike way. And there's no more "my peepee is bigger than your peepee" as Allison put it. |
Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago? Bernice Fitz-Gibbon Jack and I didn’t buy each other Christmas gifts this year (except I got the Forbidden Hollywood set because he waited too long to get me a laughing dog and they were out). However, we did shop at the shoe store after Christmas. I needed some weatherproof boots that I can walk in. The (fake) fur-lined boots I have for winter have enough of a heel on them that my feet hurt if I walk very long. While I shopped for my new boots (I found a really cute pair that are also comfortable) Jack looked around the store. Have you heard about those new walking shoes that are so popular lately? I first heard about them last month when we were at a friend’s house for dinner. Jack mentioned he'd been having trouble with his foot, plantar fasciitis. It's pretty painful and it's more common than we realized. Nearly everyone we told has had it or knows someone who did. Anyway, a woman at the dinner party told us about these shoes. They’re called MBTs or the anti-shoe. They have a kind of curved sole on them that make you stand straighter and walk a little differently. It’s supposed to be like bare feet on a soft surface. Their website has a demonstration of the benefits, showing how a person walks in ordinary shoes compared to in their shoes. (http://us.mbt.com/Home/Benefits.aspx) Now I didn’t say the shoes were attractive, and they’re pretty expensive. But your feet are important, so after Jack walked around the store in a pair he decided to buy them. He wanted me to try on a pair, too, which I did, but I didn’t really like the way they fit me. And I have to admit that the price tag gave me panic attacks. I’m an anorectic spender. There were similar, less expensive shoes though that I also tried and they felt pretty good. You may have seen the ad for Sketchers Shape Ups. I hadn’t seen the ad, but I had seen some of the shoes when I was in Seattle. (http://www.skechers.com/info/shape_ups) My brother-in-law gave me a gift certificate that nearly paid for my boots so I walked out of the store with two pair of shoes. The Sketchers felt a little weird at first. I call them my rocking shoes. They’re heavy and they sort of propel you forward. When I went down the basement stairs I walked sideways, and slowly. But I’m getting more used to them and they do seem to work the muscles in your legs more than regular shoes. I was a little sore the first time I walked any distance in them. Jack really likes his since his foot doesn't hurt like in his other shoes. We got five or six inches of snow today and it’s beautiful. Of course I don’t have to shovel it like some people so that makes it nicer for me. Jack used the broom on the car and that’s all we had to do. We went for a half hour walk in it awhile ago and it was pretty cold but fun. And my new boots felt fine. I'm so lucky. |
The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion. ~Henry Steele Commager When I was a kid I remember visiting the city with my parents (either St. Louis or Chicago, I don’t remember – I was a country mouse) and my dad took us to see the new James Bond movie. I don’t know which movie it was but I specifically remember one scene where Sean Connery and a woman were in the same bed and you could see her underwear. This was in the early sixties when movies and TV shows nearly always showed husbands and wives with twin beds. And of course, James Bond and this woman weren’t even married! I don’t know if it would have made such an impression on me, though, if my mom hadn’t kept leaning over me to glare at my dad who looked like he wanted to crawl under his seat. Jack and I have been watching Forbidden Hollywood movies. He bought me a DVD set for Christmas and we enjoyed them so much that we ordered another set from Amazon. Forbidden Hollywood movies were made in Pre-Code Hollywood. In 1930 the Motion Picture Production Code of censorship guidelines for the US movie industry was adopted, but not effectively enforced until 1934. Some major scandals involving a manslaughter charge and several drug-related deaths in the 1920s, and the media sensationalizing the “immorality of Hollywood” as well as a growing number of state and city censorship laws resulted in this crack-down on the movie industry. The code is often referred to as the Hays Code after its originator Will H. Hays. Some of the rules were: • Nakedness and suggestive dances were prohibited. • The ridicule of religion was forbidden, and ministers of religion were not to be represented as comic characters or villains. • The depiction of illegal drug use was forbidden, as well as the use of liquor, "when not required by the plot or for proper characterization". • Methods of crime (e.g. safe-cracking, arson, smuggling) were not to be explicitly presented. • The sanctity of marriage and the home had to be upheld. "Pictures shall not imply that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing". Adultery and illicit sex, although recognized as sometimes necessary to the plot, could not be explicit or justified and were not supposed to be presented as an attractive option. • References to alleged homosexuality and venereal disease were forbidden, as were depictions of childbirth. • The language section banned various words and phrases that were considered to be offensive. It wasn’t really easy to enforce these rules due to Depression economics and changing societal values and the studios kept putting out racier movies than Hays and his Studio Relations Committee wanted. Movies like the ones we’re watching, made in the early 1930s and starring actors like Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis. I’d probably never have seen some of the old actors like Norma Shearer and Conrad Nagel if Jack wasn’t such an old movie buff. I really enjoy watching them and it’s fun and pretty easy to figure out why they would have been censored. Just the titles of some:Divorcee, A Free Soul, Female, and Night Nurse give you a hint. So, anyway, Hays enlisted the Catholic Legion of Decency and such tactics as boycotts and blacklisting pretty much toned down the movies for years. Gradually, though, more and more censorship bans were loosening and in 1968 they began using the rating system much like the one we use today. I got most of the information about the code from Wikipedia, but there is a special feature documentary on our newest DVD that I want to watch one titled Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood. that’s probably more interesting. |
| Procrastination is like masturbation. At first it feels good, but in the end you're only screwing yourself.* This is far from a new topic for me. But, I just read an article I’d saved about procrastination. And since this is a new blog for the new year and (as I was reminded) it's already the fourth day, well...Putting things off, little things, big things, or little things until they turn into big things, it doesn’t really matter. Procrastination seems to be a lifestyle for me. I don’t like it but I don’t seem to be doing much about trying to change it. This article says that one of the main reasons for procrastination is perfectionism and suggests the fifteen minute plan for beating the sneaky procrastination habit. And it makes sense. If you give yourself fifteen minutes for a task you’ve been avoiding and know you can quit in fifteen minutes, you can’t really spend time agonizing over whether you’re doing it perfectly or not. And if it’s a big job, like cleaning out a closet which is always overwhelming to me, working on it fifteen minutes at a time you’ll still get the job done. You can set a timer to make sure that you don’t go over. So what if it takes a week or even a month. It will still feel good to get it done. Actually I’ve been working on my closet, even before I read the article. I was feeling guilty, though, because I’d work a little while then take a long, long break and do something else. It could be I’m doing it the right way after all. It’s taken a few days, but I have made progress. I filled four large grocery bags to donate to the thrift shop. I organized the hanging items and the top shelf. I even got my dresser drawers cleaned out and organized. Now I only still have the closet floor to clean. Maybe that fifteen minute rule could actually work for me. Maybe I can convince myself to do a few more of the many things that I’ve been putting off. In fact I guess I just did. Thanks to a little nudging, I finally made an imperfect entry in my imperfect new blog. Now I need to do something about those holiday cards I’ve been intending to send. Someday is not a day of the week. ~Author Unknown *Anybody know where that first quote came from? |
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