Category Archives: Life

Happiness Or Unhappiness?

1 Reply

One evening a Cherokee elder told his grandson about the battle that goes on inside people’s heads.  He said, “My son, the battle is between the two ‘wolves’ that live inside us all.  One is Unhappiness. It is fear, worry, anger, jealousy, sorrow, self-pity, resentment and inferiority.  The other is Happiness. It is joy, love, hope, serenity, kindness, generosity, truth and compassion.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Someone sent this story to me months ago. I liked it so much, I thought I would share.

My Job Was Eliminated

Leave a reply

I have been eliminated–not laid off with the hope of being rehired. No, I am an eliminated entity. That’s like erasing all the writing from a chalkboard with one sweep of an eraser. One minute there’s something there; the next minute it’s gone.

The thing is, one doesn’t know what to do with oneself when the alarm doesn’t go off. I remember all those mornings when that annoying alarm sounded and all I wanted to do was catch another 20 minutes of sleep. Now, for some reason, I don’t crave the sleep. I get up like always, but I have no place to go.

After several days of thinking and analyzing and speaking to my family, I have decided to move in with my daughter. We will be three generations in one house. That has spawned much discussion among my friends and acquaintances.

Many families, not just mine, are merging together out of necessity. I didn’t realize that while I was still employed, but it appears families are circling the wagons. They have run out of other choices.

In some instances, it is a good thing. My ophthalmologist has opened his doors once again to his son, and his nephew, too, is having a hard time finding another job. He is expecting to find him on his doorstep any day now, as well. However, he welcomes the opportunity to help both boys through this crisis and believes he will come to know each of them a little better because as he puts it, ” I only know the boys as they once were, not as the adults they have become.”

I think my decision to join my family will also be a good one, but I know there are many family situations that are not conducive to combining generations in one home.

I just had a discussion with a friend five minutes ago, while I was writing this post as a matter of fact, who is not looking forward to what the near future has in store for her. Her mother-in law and brother-in-law are preparing to move into her home. She is forced to give up space that she worked hard to create for herself and her husband over the years. That may not sound like much, but it’s huge. Furniture put into storage to make room for other furniture being moved in. Drapes to be hung in a sun room that will now be used as a bedroom, no longer a place of refuge. She views this turn of events as an end of her peace and comfort, something she craves when she comes home from work. The fact that she is forced to give all of this over to people she doesn’t particularly care for, but who she is obligated to help in their time of need, makes it all the more an enormous struggle. Yet, she will do it because she loves her husband.

I think depression will be the likely result for those who are forced to join together and make unwanted and unforeseen changes in their lives. What a pity. What to do? What to do?

New York, New York

4 Replies

The Big Apple

big-apple-ny

When you read that title, New York, New York, tell the truth, didn’t you automatically hear the lyrics in your head? I can almost picture a line of dancers kicking up their heels in unison at the Radio City Music Hall.

New York City is the next city on my countdown for vacationing on a budget and where to do it in the U.S. To be absolutely honest, New York City is pricey, but when compared to hopping a plane abroad, it’s a real bargain. It has everything, including the most diverse cross-section of ethnicity in this country.

How does one describe the city that never sleeps?

I’m just going to tick off  “some” of the things you will find in NYC.

  • Central Park, which encompasses the Central Park Zoo, the Central Park Conservatory Garden, (2) Ice-Skating Rinks,  and an outdoor Theatre in the Park. (If you’re a birder–Central Park is your own personal heaven.)
  • Statue of Liberty
  • Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center
  • Chinatown
  • Harlem
  • Broadway (You haven’t experienced a play until you’ve seen one on Broadway)
  • Museums (My favorite–Metropolitan Museum of Art– you can spend days there and still not see it all) There are loads of other museums, though. Another popular museum is MoMA, Museum of Modern Art
  • Times Square (If you visit, be sure to grab a burger at the McDonald’s at Times Square. You won’t believe your eyes.)
  • Greenwich Village
  • The Garment District

There’s more, but the list would go on and on into infinity. Suffice it to say, every neighborhood has something new and different to offer and you can see it all because cabs are at your beck and call day or night.

And there is actually one freebie in NYC. The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museums are free on Friday evenings. Not bad!

I’ll close by reminding you that shopping in New York is phenomenal. Bring some extra cash.

New Orleans, Louisiana

1 Reply

french-quarter1

Most people think if you’re going to visit New Orleans, it should be during Mardi Gras.  That’s great, I admit. The parades are not to be missed and the craziness on the streets adds to the raucus, carefree atmosphere.

But there’s so much more to New Orleans: Bourbon Street, the French Market, the Garden District, eclectic shopping on Royal Street, the fantastic architecture throughout the City and the Riverboats on the Mississippi River. And there’s more, much more.

But for me, it’s all about the food and the music. I’ll never forget savoring the taste of my first beignet at the Cafe du Monde, or the taste sensation of gumbo at the Gumbo Shop in the French Quarter, or authentic cajun food found throughout the City.

And the music?

You can hear music everywhere, at any time, by day, or by night. If you want to experience music at its very best, make plans to attend the Jazz Fest, which is held in April each year. Tents and open-air stages abound with every imaginable type of music: jazz (of course), gospel, oldies, big band, zydeco, blues, country, bluegrass, dixieland, even latin jazz. If you can dream it up, you can probably find it at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. All live. All sensational–and the food at the fair? Every bit as savory as the music.

Good For The Waistline, Good For The Pocketbook, Too

Leave a reply

cheeseburger

It’s time to cut out some of the fast food drop-ins on your way home from work. Notice I say some, because there are days when you’re just too tired to cook, or you don’t have time to cook, or you’ve got to have a greasy cheeseburger, no matter what!

On those days when there’s no getting around it, be prepared. It doesn’t have to be a fast food burger. I buy a pound of ground beef, but instead of freezing it, I shape it into four burgers (very simple–nothing whatsoever added to it). Those individually wrapped burgers are always in my freezer. I freeze burger buns, too. Instant meal!

And if you want to make it healthier, smother every burger with tomato, lettuce, pickle, onion and a little cheese. The more lettuce, the better. It adds crunch.

Another thing you might want to consider is, once the kitchen is cleaned after dinner, put up the “Closed” sign. I don’t mean literally, but I remember my mother wiped and dried her kitchen sink. She shined the faucet and folded the towel and, believe me, you didn’t mess up her sink after that. It was her way of closing the kitchen for the night. It was a good policy. No one in our family had a weight problem back then.

And, incidentally, if you want to read a book about losing weight the fun way, try reading a book written by Janice Taylor titled All Is Forgiven, Move On. I mention her book because one of her suggestions is to close your kitchen at 9:20 p.m. every night.  My mom was doing that back in the 50’s.

Janice also has some nifty charts, some great recipes and motivation ideas for getting healthy and staying that way.

You might also want to visit Janice’s site http://ourladyofweightloss.com/ It’s an interesting read.

Two Different Points Of View

Leave a reply

Photo from Careerealism

I finally received an emailed joke that actually made me smile. I’m sharing.

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken woman swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.

My wife asked, “Do you know her?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “She’s my old girlfriend. I understand she started drinking right after we split up those many years ago and I hear she hasn’t been sober since.”

“My God!” my wife said. “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”

Phone Books – Think Green

6 Replies

My website is finally out from under that black cloud. Following is a post that you may have missed while we were offline.

Recycling can be so sexy. Creator Jolis Paons pleated, sewed and glued this entire dress by hand.

phonebook-dress

Photo and quote above from Neatorama

Two huge, thick, heavy phonebooks were waiting for me at my front door last week. Normally, I drag them into the house, trash the old books (recycling isn’t available in my area at the moment) and replace them with the new ones. I don’t believe I’ve used my phone-books for the past four or five years, and I bet loads of other people haven’t either. How many wasted trees do these unwanted volumes represent, I wonder?

Creating a dress is a novel idea, but I had to ask myself, why do I receive these books year after year. I don’t want them. With the advent of the Internet, these books became obsolete.

A better idea would be to mail all area occupants a postcard asking whether they wish to continue receiving the phone-books. It would cut down on an immense amount of waste and save a lot of trees.


Ghosts, Candy & Hitting Up The Drunks

2 Replies

Back in the day, Halloween was sheer delight. No one worried about razors in apples, or the safety of the streets. Parents stayed at home and gave out candy. Kids went door to door showing off their costumes. (most homemade using a bit of ingenuity.)

Every year, after the trick or treating was over for the younger set, my mother circled around to the back of our house and returned through our front door dressed as a ghost, screeching and making sounds that I guess she figured a ghost might make. My father and I  always made quite a fuss until the ghost disappeared out through the back of the house again. A few minutes later, my mother would reappear, usually coming up from the basement steps. (Sheet stowed away for another year.)

We didn’t receive mini bars of candy, either. Full-size candy bars were the order of the day.

And nobody frowned about teenagers coming around for treats later in the evening. If people ran out of candy, they dropped nickels in the bags. Neighborhood stores stayed open and gave out great treats, and when I became one of those teenagers, my friends and I always stopped in at the local bar. We thought of it as “hitting up the drunks” (My mother would’ve passed out if she knew.) But the drunks handed out some A-#1 largesse. They’d take change off the bar, usually a lot more than a nickel, and drop it into our bags. They actually liked being included in the fun and asked about our costumes and laughed and joked with us.

Those were the days.