A Winter Day

Some people warm up with hot cocoa, some people like tea.   I learned (again) today that the BEST way to warm up on a cold winter day is -- shoveling!     By the time I was done,  I was overheated.   Of course my back was also killing me and I was ready for winter to be over.    I guess you can't have everything - and at least I was warm!

Say what???

I've been living in my new community for a little more than a year.    Some things are different.   There is less traffic, there are fewer stores (although still more than plenty).    There is a lot more open space, the farmers market is more convenient.   But there are also differences in communal attitude that are hard to put a finger on.  

Two things in particular have struck me as SO different that I just had to laugh.    For one thing, the only mention of guns at my old neighborhood was in relation to crime.    Up here, there's a commercial for a gun shop on TV and the slogan is, 'If a man don't hunt, don't trust him."     I laugh out loud every time I hear it.   (I also go there to shoot.)

But this one took the cake.    Just this week, I got several fliers for community ed classes.    I am in the market for a class, so I read them cover to cover.    In one little booklet of "creative classes," in a section titled "Wellness, right after Tai Chi and Yoga, I found this listing:

"LEARN A VALENTINE DANCE FOR YOUR SWEETHEART
Would you like to surprise your Valentine with a fun present of your own: a fun, flirty and completely unforgettable lap dance?  "

The class description goes on to explain that this 90 session will teach "the basics of giving a luscious lap dance," and that each participant will be give a "written breakdown so you can practice and perfect your dance at home."    $35.

Seriously?    Lap dancing instruction in there with "watercolor workshop" and "beginning drawing"?    Should I be horrified?    Should I wish I'd seen this years ago? -- maybe if I'd taken this class instead of getting those silly degrees, I'd have a lap to dance in.    Should I ask them to send this booklet in a plain wrapper?

Sorry, my mental picture of that class, with me in it, makes me want to laugh until I wet my pants.   Excuse me for a minute, I think I'll go do that.

No wait, I just got a better look at my mental picture.    Not funny at all.    

Another present from my sister

My sister says she bought this for me because I am on my way.    From her lips to God's ears.

How cute!

My sister gave me the cutest present this week, for no particular reason (my favorite kind!)   I have several "nesting" dolls in my house, and she gave me this adorable set to add to my collection -- can you tell from the photos that they are measuring cups?!    So cute!  I might just have to make cookies this weekend!

2011: looking back, looking forward

I have been reading other bloggers' New Year's resolutions, intentions, and wishes.    There is much in my life (and my person) that would benefit from change, so I have been thinking of what I would resolve, or intend, or wish for myself.     But I suspect, from past experience, that big promises of change in finance, weight and exercise will be doomed to fail, so I am trying, instead, to think of little things that will add to my happiness.  

2009 was a difficult year for me.  My daughter almost died that year.  I flew south without so much as a toothbrush and not knowing if she would survive, and then "lived" in the waiting room of an intensive care ward in Louisiana for weeks.   I returned home to learn that I had been fired.   I also learned that my roof needed immediate replacement.    An SUV backed into my compact car in a parking lot.   I sold my house (with its new roof) at a huge loss and, just as I was moving into my new house, Bank officials kicked in the front door and changed the locks because they hadn't gotten the word that I had a legal right to be there.  My insurance company refused to give me a policy on the new house until I replaced the roof there, too.    I was audited by the IRS, which claimed I owed tens of thousands of dollars from my mother's estate.   Although 2009 might seem like a long time ago to many of you,  I have not fully recovered from its battering. 

I was glad to see 2009 end.

2010 was less dramatic, a time to rest and heal.     My daughter recovered, more or less.  I learned to be grateful to be out of my toxic job.  I replaced the front door, bought a new car, and was able to prove that I didn't owe any taxes.  My new roof didn't leak.  I baked and cooked and gardened.   I learned to target shoot.  I went back to Sanibel Island.

I am not sure what 2011 will bring.    I view it with some trepidation.    If I have learned anything these past couple years, I have learned that change and upheaval happen when they will, with no regard for what is best for me.   I have been reminded that life is fragile and that peace is something you have to carry within yourself or it won't be there when you need it.   I have learned that I don't bounce back as quickly as I used to and have been convinced that I am growing old.

So I make my New Year's wishes with a new gentleness, knowing that I will forgive myself my lapses.    My life is not bad, but there is room for improvement.    In the area of personal improvement, I would like to work on a healthier life.    I am certain that I love my family more than ice cream and potato chips, and I need to remember to make that choice every day because I eat way too much sugar and junk food.   I would like to find some kind of work, and I am no longer willing to do something that makes me unhappy.    I am not sure what that something will be, but I will try to be open to it.     I would like to have a more social life; I spend way too much time alone in an empty house.    That would entail forcing myself out, attending more events, putting myself "out there" as much as I can, a scary proposition.  

I would like to take a trip with my sister this year.    I would like to get more pedicures.  I would like to read more books.    I would like to do some fishing and shoot some bulls-eyes.     I would like a lot of things.    But the truth is, I'll gladly settle for what I have, with no ugly surprises along the way.

Vacation Memories

 

A good start to a new year

I have been to Sanibel Island many (many) times, and I have had lots (and lots) of fun there, but I have never had as much fun as I did this week.    I saw old things through new eyes, I saw things I'd never seen before,  I laughed every day and slept like a log every night.    All this, and I didn't even find any good shells!

We stayed at Beach Club II by the Lighthouse beach.

 We went to the Shell Museum and Ding Darling, we spent a lot of time at the beach, we got covered in sand and salt, we went on a sea-life encounter, and we played "Sleeping Queens."  We went to the Nascrab races where my 6-year-old grandson's crab "Pizza"  won 4th prize and my grandson won a pocket-full of cash! 

 We saw the last sunset of 2010,

 and saw magicians at the City's New Year's Eve party.

And now I am back home.   It is cold and damp, I need to take down my Christmas decorations, and there are no groceries in the house.   The temperature has dropped 30 degrees in Michigan since I returned home -- more than 50 degrees colder than what we enjoyed our last days in Florida.   But I am still enjoying the warmth of a very good time.   And looking forward to a good night's sleep -- no kidding, vacations are exhausting!

Happy New Year to all of you.   I hope your 2011 will be every bit as good as mine is starting out to be!