Alright, folks…here it is: today is June 27, 2012. This date marks almost exactly six months since I stuck my neck out with my very public New Years Resolution. You regular readers of this post might remember in early January when I posted my rather ambitious resolution for the new year. It wasn’t the usual litany of losing weight, going to the gym more, or any other pedestrian reform. No, mine was a year-long project to get organized and scrub my house from top to bottom – every floor, every room, every closet, every cabinet. No corner would be overlooked in my frenzy. I was determined to create a completely dust-free, clutter-free home. The goal I had set for myself was to simply be able to enjoy the Christmas holiday season when it rolls around again (which I’ve come to realize, happens at the same time every year – so why does it always come as such a surprise?). Continue reading
Welcome To My Home…Pardon The Dust Bunnies
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A Really Funny Guy…
![Cover of "Blood on the Tracks"](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LvtLuKtCL._SL300_.jpg "Cover of "Blood on the Tracks"")
Attention world,
It has come to my awareness that I may have given some of you people the wrong ideas about me. A person close to me told me that a person close to me said that some people close to me had some less than flattering ideas about who I am. I listened to what all of these close people had said and was, to say the least, flabbergasted. (Note to self: I do not use the word “flabbergasted” often enough. Try to work that into more conversations.)
As the world’s number one ambassador of myself, I feel that I should clear the air.
I am unfriendly.
There are times in my life when I may seem unfriendly. I may look like I am doing my best Holden Caulfield impression, brooding off in the corner. The fact is I am not brooding. I am not even 100% certain what…
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I’m Stuck In An AOL Time Warp And I Don’t Care!
YES! I admit it…I still have an AOL email address. I get. I’m a loser. Now, leave me alone and stop snickering when I’m asked for it from various stores. I’m usually torn about giving it. In fact, way back when, I used to think, “No way am I giving you my personal, private email address.” But, then I realized that, by refusing that method of communication, I was telling them I’d prefer to talk to them on the phone. I figured out fast enough that was NOT what I preferred. Plus, when stores ask for my email, it’s so I can get coupons and discounts. Print them out at home. At my leisure. I’ve never been one to clip coupons from the newspaper. Not because I haven’t tried. But, it became so much work and I never had them with me when I needed them. And, I’m pretty sure the rare times I remembered to bring them, I could hear every person in line behind me sighing as I’d open my handy coupon holder to extract necessary clipped savings, only to be told that the item I plucked from the shelf was not the right size or brand or, showing me the small print, that I needed to buy six of them to get the seventh half-off.
What I do like, though, is extra savings to be had from stores like Kohl’s, JC Penney, Barnes and Noble, Harry and David, Famous Footwear, etc. So, yes, when asked, I quietly whisper my lame AOL email address. I whisper, not because I care about the looks of disdain from the cool high school/college aged cashiers, but because my kids are horrified that I would just blurt it out without any care to their emotional well-being. I mean, there may be people they know lurking about. They have begged me for years to get a g-mail account. To get with the times. It’s not the nineties anymore, for God’s sake. “I’ll set it up for you, Mom. It’s easy. It doesn’t cost anything. Can’t you ever think of anyone besides yourself?” But, I feel like I everyone I know has my AOL address (and as far as I know, have not “unfriended” me on Facebook or shunned me in public). It just seems like such a hassle to change it. And, besides, I have a feeling that AOL will make a comeback. And THEN who will be the cool one, hmmmm?? I can see their eyes rolling.
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Could You Use A Miracle About Now?
I came across something a while back as I was paging through a great book called “Saintly Advice” (who couldn’t use some of that?) and it occurred to me that there are probably a lot of people out there now who might find some comfort in these words. So, I decided to share it with you, along with my thoughts. It is an intercessory prayer to the Infant Jesus of Prague.
The story that accompanies this particular intercession is this: A statue of the Infant Jesus wearing a long gown and holding a bird in his hand was carved sometime in the fourteenth century It found its way to Prague where, in 1628, a young priest found the statue in the ruins after the Saxons and Swedes invaded. He cleaned the sculpture and noticed that the Divine Infant’s hand needed repair, but he had neither the money nor the skill to do it. He asked the Blessed Mother to help provide funds. A man then passed by the church and fixed the statue’s hand, and great miracles were reported after the repair. Because of its history, the Infant Jesus of Prague can be called upon when emergency funds are needed. The prayer is as follows:
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Survival Of The Fittest…Or Why I’m An Indoorsy Person
What the heck is going on with Mother Nature these days? Within the last six months, I’ve been inundated with tales of horror that used to only be the stuff of “Animals Gone Wild” on Animal Planet. Regular readers of this site may recall the post, Close Encounters Of The Rabid Kind, (published 10/23/2011) in which my son, Mike, related his terrifying experience with a rabid bat along the Gold Coast of Chicago. In that blog, I shared Mike’s history of scary animal moments dating back many years to his first up-close and personal hissing by a goose, when, one day, I thought it would be nice to bring my young children for a walk along the Fox River and feed the ducks. And it was, until the geese began to follow us, demanding the bread we’d brought for the friendly ducks. Warning my children to ignore the geese and walk away from them, one boldly walked right up to Mike, stretched his long neck until he was very nearly at face level and hauled off with the scariest hiss I’d ever heard. Poor Mike – you regulars know that that has become Mike’s name because of my penchant for signing him up for every possible sport, camp, music lesson, and scouting (for which my husband and I will never be forgiven) and wouldn’t let him quit anything because, ‘You don’t want to be a quitter’, which was all Mike desperately wanted. But I digress… Anyway, Poor Mike was indeed scarred from that experience. Continue reading
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Jeepers, Creepers…Or Why I Joined Facebook
I decided to join Facebook for two reasons. First, I wanted to have a link to my third son as he left for college. Funny, I didn’t feel the need for the older ones… The decision to send him to the University of Iowa to study music was a difficult one. We were between Iowa and Illinois and, to be honest, every time we’d make a “pros” and “cons” list for the schools, Illinois always came out as the obvious, prudent choice. But, we sensed Peter was leaning towards Iowa and when he would tell us that he thought Illinois was the one, we knew it was because he was thinking more of our finances, which, hello….should be considered…than his true desire. It was only when my husband said, “Peter, if money was absolutely no object, where would you like to go?” (these words spilled out of his mouth before I had time to fly across the room and kill him), that he said “Iowa”. So, the decision was made. Our two older sons had attended and have since graduated from the University of Iowa, so we were well-acquainted with Iowa City and the Hawkeyes. Our car could drive there on its own (and sometimes, I think it did). But, Pete was studying music, and you can’t just transfer Universities if you’re in a music school. So, the decision seemed permanent. Of course, with that kind of unease, I thought I needed a little reassurance that he was happy and thriving at his new school. Continue reading
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I think those things are such a scam! You think you can acatually control the light, haha!
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I’ve heard this
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A Prairie By Any Other Name…
Moving to the suburbs did not prove to be as difficult as I’d feared. In fact, I have to admit, it’s been quite nice. Of course, I’ve had twenty-five years to get used to it. When my older sister (from whom I’ve learned most of the important things in life) moved out to the boonies, she’d had a completely different experience. She had moved from an apartment above a pharmacy (a really nice apartment, though) to a beautiful home in a very desirable western suburb. It seemed a dream come true. But, it didn’t come without reservations. The biggest being, what’s the water going to be like? That was always the question. That was the question from our parents and five brothers left behind. Because, we knew that outside the city limits, existed the wild frontier, unknown, unchartered and definitely without Chicago water.
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It’s a dilemma as old as time.
You have a date that you want to impress. You want that date to think you are a smart, well-educated, person with a vast cultural appetite. So what do you do on a date? Your usual evening of eating hot wings and watching procedural crime shows is not going to cut it. You need a night of culture, one that will impress your would-be mate enough to at least get that second date.
You have it planned out perfectly. A nice dinner followed by a dessert at a local gelato stand, then off to a local art gallery.
There is just one problem: art galleries are scary! There are all those paintings of demons and people with neatly groomed goatees. People talk about a twisted pile of metal like it is art when it is, in fact, a twisted pile of metal. How…
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Life on a Box Wine Budget 