For meandering thoughts, and mindful walks... |
The White Board For meandering thoughts, and mindful walks...for rants and pouts, and blowing off steam. For happy days and sad days, for crazy adventures and delightful victories! :) |
I am now also writing a daily blog concerning writing at: http://observations.today.com check it out! |
4 year birthday --wdc style today. I so love this place...So much has changed in my life since I joined...gone from black to yellow to blue...gone from being single, alone and lost to being loved and married. I've grown as a person, as a mom, as a friend and as a wife. I've made friends here I consider to be among the dearest friends I have. I worry and love and rejoice with them every bit as much as I do my friend down the street, but then my wdc family is just that~~~family and I love you all! Happy Birthday to Me! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! |
For Valentine's Day this year I gave my love, my husband, my friend a simple blue notebook. I started it a year ago, the day after Valentine's Day. Every page dated, one for each day and on each one I had something to say. For every page, a thought of love, a reason why I love him. Who knew when I started that during the year we'd get engaged, married too. Yet every day it came to be one of my favorite quiet time and the hardest part was keeping it to only one little, special, loving thing and after a while, I simply wrote what I wanted: Some days only a word or two, others a paragraph or three. I wrote of such things as coffee in bed, a timely hug, a thoughtful gift or of understanding noises when he had no clue what I was babbling about. Scribbled some days, in inks of rainbow hues, reasons deep, soul depth or shallow, reasons selfish, loving, sweet. Three hundred and sixty five reasons why I have, do and will love my wonderful, funny, loving Valentine. |
That hell has frozen over!!!!!!! Hell, Michigan, that is! Now I KNOW it's cold! |
Just sprayed some of Mom's Youth Dew or should I say 'blu perfume' around the house. I'd been so blue myself today...really missing Mom...but spraying her perfume around made her instantly HERE Amazing just how MUCH better it made me feel! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! I love you...... |
The Christmas Angel Late one night in the toy store the old man trimmed his tree with all his love and all his skill with toys carved through his artistry. Little toy soldiers at attention stood guarding the Christmas Spirit. Golden bells chimed their song so true that you could feel it. Mr. Angelino was his name- pure white of hair and brow. A size-less man, with calloused hands who answered questions of why and how. In front of the crackling fireplace (that burned the whole year through) he'd carve and talk; inspire and dream, telling marvelous stories he would swear were true! His hands always caressed a piece of wood as he sat in his hand-carved rocking chair waiting for an idea to come as to what it could be with a nick here or there. I used to love the toyshop- I always felt at home; secure. He always knew when life was wrong. . . and when it was, he'd find a cure. Until one day I didn't go in, instead I passed him by and although he'd come to the door and watch he never pressed for why. Summer heat baked leaves to brown, Autumn cooled, then snowflakes flew. I turned to my writing, to books, to dreams and never guessed the old man knew the problems that tormented me so, the teasing the teacher's pet had received and without my ever breathing a word Mr. Angelino's cure was thus conceived. When you are the odd-girl-out in town for some reason different from the very start, the one who is teased about her name and her dress and her grades feels very strange and very apart. Just when every girl needs to feel pretty a head-on collision wept colors dim-- clear glass blocking out the light-- bandages and scars; without and within. Kids are cruel, they don't understand. Unable to cherish what it meant to see and so they laughed and teased and joked at the glasses I wore, and so at me. Every year at the toystore the old man trimmed his Christmas tree. Every year he carved a new angel to crown the top for all to see. He must have had fifty from previous years; each one a masterpiece. All of them different, all of them carved; each one a herald of Christmas Peace. The Christmas Angel he carved that year was his last. . .unfortunately. He carved the magic of his craft into a special angel for all to see. He waited until Christmas Eve to light his tree that year and all the people crowded 'round his store singing songs of joy and cheer. While they waited together: I stood there alone on the side being pelted with snowballs: wanting to be there, yet wanting to hide. Wondering why after all these months I was still being teased about my glasses thick. When a deep expectancy stilled the crowd as Mr. Angelino lit the candle's wick. I heard the crowd murmur in delight, saw fingers pointed at the tree and simply couldn't understand when everyone turned to look at me. The crowd parted leaving a path of faces which now were smiling at me. Feeling foolish embarrassed, scared, I walked to the window and saw his tree. Suddenly I understood and lifted my head up high. Someone began singing "Silent Night" and outside the toystore joy was nigh! There on top of the Christmas Tree carved with a theme for the masses was a beautiful, smiling angel wearing a thick pair of glasses! Merry Christmas Everyone! May your days to come be full of joy! Love, Robin |
I'm getting Married! WE are getting married....in like 2 hours we will be married...man and wife...I'll be MRS Ken Moyer...Mrs FYn lol Oh my gosh is the spazzz ever setting in...we need to leave in 45 minutes..and i'm the only one ready! SPAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ |
I'm getting married! Yehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! |
This past Friday I was invited to Lansing to go to a place called Magdelena's Tea House to read some of my poetry. A friend of mine was headlining that evening. It was awesome, but the best part was...they really, really liked my stuff! The audience ranged froma blue-haired lady to kids with purple and orange hair. There were people of all ages, orientations and genders...and they liked what I read. Now, granted, I was no 'Quela.' Quela got up they and had all her stuff memorized and she really emoted! Me? I sat and read. Sure, I looked at the audience etc, but I basically read my work. People had tears! People laughed. People hugged. It was so freeking awesome! And they want me to come back in November! *dances a happy dance* The other cool part was running into several folks that are also on Writing.Com. We chatted and when I mentioned 'Fyndorian', which is who I am on WDC, I got...'Oh you're Fyndorian? I know you!' Too cool! |
Another slice of life as seen from the convenience store..... Recipe for a Full Blown Panic Take one Hurricane aiming dead on for the nation's largest oil refineries. Stir in a healthy dose of media madness screaming about prices jumping to 5 or 6 dollars a gallon.. Fold in two local gas stations (not mine) experiencing some sort of internal confusion resulting in an EIGHTY-FIVE CENT jump in their gas prices over mine. Simmer in a Friday night pressure cooker and BAM! Instant FULL BLOWN PANIC! It took two cashiers, me, my other half and two police officers to control round-the-block lines of people screaming and yelling and punching and, generally, acting like two year olds. Then came dessert. I had to raise our prices. Not, mind you, to the extreme of $4.69 down the street, but a more reasonable $4.21. *That's MY spot. I was here first. No, I was here first!!! Well, my car is bigger than yours! I'm blocked in. I want in. I can't get out, move your car! No, I'll lose my spot. I need gas. I didn't know my gas tank was on that side! I must have moved. (!!!) I NEED gas. OMG, they will run out before I get MY gas. Raising the price? You can't do that! Look! The station down the street is out of gas! I will not move my car until I get gas!* Strains of Chicken Little....the sky is falling...the sky is falling! $30,000 dollars later we are exhausted. Everyone got their gas....we didn't run out until midway through day 2 of the mob mentality. Today our gas is on sale for $4.17. It is teeming rain as the last dregs of TS Ike blow out over Michigan. And no one wants to admit that they were a part of the screaming, panic driven mob that descended on my station. Folks say they 'drove by and saw it.' They comment about the mayhem, but, no, they didn't 'need' gas that night. Uh huh...sure. Panic is a most interesting phenomenon. All it took was someone telling someone else that their sister's girlfriend's mother-in-law saw gas for some exorbitant price and people go nuts! They seem to cease having rational thoughts. They revert to two-year old screaming and pushing. In short...they panic. These are everyday customers in tiny town America. Not people trying to evacuate from a hurricane. Just everyday people. And friday night they showed a side of themselves that, I expect, come Saturday morning, were a bit embarrassed about. Least I hope they were! |
9-11 A day and a series of events that is forever burned into my memory and into the collective consciousness of millions of people worldwide. It seems forever ago now...seven years....and then again, it seems like yesterday. I grew up in the shadows of the World Trade Center. I ate at the restaurant at the Top of The World. When I think of NYC, I see the skyline in my mind and today it still includes the towers. Seeing the NYC skyline today, it seems empty. And, to this day...it sounds loud...echoing sounds overlapping and in the middle of those mind images is one of a five year old girl with long pigtails flying wearing a pink coat. A photograph of my daughter spinning around on the street, looking up and up and up at the towers that she once said seemed to go all the way to heaven. Where were you when the world stopped turning...that September day? I was in Maine, watching it all play out on television. I remember thinking that I was glad I was in Maine. I felt safe. Until I realized that the terrorists had stayed in a hotel the night before that was less than ten miles from my house....until I realized that the photo of one of the terrorists responsible was someone I'd seen. I recognized the photo because he'd been a cabdriver on the Alewife run outside of Boston, and I'd been in his cab many times. I'd sat in the backseat of his cab looking at his picture. There was no doubt in my mind and I picked up the phone and called the police. I remember my mother calling from Illinois, frantic because she couldn't reach my brother and she didn't want him to go to work that day at the the Prudential Building in Boston where he worked at the Top of the Hub restaurant on the top floors. He couldn't have though, as by then, they had closed Boston down. I remember reaching him and waking him up. I told him to turn on the TV. He asked me what channel and I told him it didn't matter. On the phone together, we watched as the first tower fell. I remember how quiet the skies were. And I remember how terrified I was the first time I heard a plane after that. We were only a few miles from Kennibunk, Maine and fighter jets were in the skies above it. I worked for an advertising agency. One of our accounts was Cantor Fitzgerald. I had a deadline of September 11th for rewritten copy for a new brochure we'd been working on for them. I'd emailed it the night before. Where were you when the world stopped turning...that September day? I will never forget. |
anyone have a myspace thingy and doing the mobster ap? Add me and join mine pleeeease....i've only got a tiny little mob :( |
check it out! WONderful vacation, but way too short! http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=298034 |
Don't care...we's outta here! Yehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Off for Mackinac and points north. Ever heard of 'Da Yoopers'? Headed to yooper land...gonna be a a yooper instead of a troll *grin* (trolls live under (below) the bridge!) |
I can't wait until Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Vacation!!! Yehaaaaaaaaa!!!! I need it badly. There is a reason why, when managers go on vacation, that it is called LOONY LEAVE! I am soooooooooooo excited about it! We are headed to the Upper penninsula of Michigan and I've never been there before. Looking forward to the Mackinack Bridge and Mackinack Island and the grand Hotel...which we aren't staying at (not at 250 a night...per person!!!)...in fact I doubt we'll even go for a stroll on that famous porch as they charge 15$ per person to do that too! But it will be nice to see it at a distance...sigh...Somewhere in Time is my all time favorite movie! My daughter will be running the store...she's been doing an awesome job of it too! Hurry up Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Today was parade day in Pinckney and Erik from Survivor was in the parade...(not such a far guess as he's from here) but better...he was in my store and i got my picture taken with him!!!! But even better than that...he agreed to an interview and i am so psyched! |
Cara's Home!!!!!! Her 10:30 flight got in at 1 in the morning....got home at 2:30...slept until i was awakened this morning by her age old ritual of bringing me coffee! Life is good...no better...life is joyous! |
We had an earthquake today! It was centered in Illinois, but we felt it here in Michigan! Thought i was going crazy...felt much better when I got in the car and heard about the quake on the radio :) ANNNDDDDDD.. Cara's coming home from Japan to stay and go to school for a year! YEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! She also just won the top US Navy Journalism Award (CHNFO AWARDS) for News Articles!!! WTG Kiddo! |
weird stuff going on.....sigh..... |
Emerging from a week of being sick, sick, SICK!!!! Miserable!!!! I can't remember the last time I was this flat out sick. Feeling better today...some but feel as weak as a kitten run over by a mack truck (wait...what is it you drive, Lexi? Just kidding! *grin*) Nice news in the *for what it's worth* department....I've been nominated to be included in 'Who's Who Among Executive and Professional Women.' Kinda cool...at least i think so...sure has me smiling at least :) Ken and I are planning our vacation in June. We WERE going to go to Boston so he could realize his lifelong dream of walking on the decks of the USS Constitution, but it is undergoing a major overhaul, replacing, you guessed it, the decks. Wouldn't really be the same seeing it all torn apart and not being able to actually stand on the deck. So that trip is postponed a few years as it won't be completed until fall 2009. Sigh. So we are driving to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and doing some exploring. Along the way we will be driving from Hell, Michigan to Paradise, Michigan. Yes, really. We'll also be collecting Petosky stones in Petosky, crossing the Mackinaw Bridge and going to Mackinaw Island. Wish we could stay at the Grand Hotel on the island. You know, that famous hotel of 'Somewhere in Time' fame? I figured it would be expensive but for one night and one of my long time dreams that we could do it. Silly me, I figured it would be close to 200 a night. Well, I was close...sort of. It is 250 a night...per person!!!! NOT! And it is 15 a head just to walk on the porch. So we will not be doing that...not in this lifetime. But we will go to the island, get some fudge and take a horse and buggy ride around the island. That will be romantic and fun! Then on to Paradise and Taquameden Falls, The Whitefish Shipwreck Museum, (Think the Edmund Fitzgerald) and on to the Pictured Rocks lining Lake Superior. We will be staying in a cottage right on the shore in Christmas, Michigan. That area is great for collecting agates along the shoreline. And, Christmas will be a fun place for some shopping! After that we'll indulge ourselves in a bit of totally silly fun. We are both fans of 'Da Yoopers,' (think 'Rusty Chevrolet' and '2nd Week of Deercamp') and are going to their Tourist Trap Trap! It will be fun! For the uninformed. Yoopers are those in Michigan who live above the bridge...trolls are we who live below!. On our way back we'll hit the St Ignace Mystery Spot, a ghost town and Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. On to Holland, Michigan and Home. We'll be gone about 10 glorious days and this will be our first long trip together as well as my first trip waaaay up north. Can you tell I'm psyched? |