“This is the day…”

This is the day…to do the _________ (you may fill in the blank with whatever detestable item you hate to do here. You know the ones, what I sometimes call “sticky wickets,” or some other silly name. The things you just keep putting off because you hate doing them so much, for whatever reason). I don’t want to. I just want to go to back to bed. Because of a dream that woke me up early in order to ruin my day! God…”This is the day the Lord has made,” so the Bible says. Help me to “rejoice and be glad in it.” Or at least to do what I’ve been putting off and really need to do now. Amen.

“The Other Side of Young”

“The other side of young.” I have worn a variation of one haircut since college days. I did not know it for probably 40 years, but when I saw the cut on someone and went to her hairdresser for the same cut and style, this older woman quickly identified it. This is the “Dorothy Hamill haircut”! She had met the inventor of the cut long time ago, and yes it is an actual thing, although I doubt that they patent haircuts! There’s something to be said for going to a stylist who was alive and well during the time period when you formed your hair cut identity. I loved my previous hair stylist – we had great conversations. But in the two years that I went to her she just never could get the look right. She may never have seen it. Alas, the prompt for this blog. Well, this sweet salon owner was quite a bit older than myself, and we had several nice conversations going in the small room which we could all relate to…and I happily referred to myself as old. When she insisted that I was not old (it is quite relative ;-), I said okay then, I’m “the other side of young” :-). She loved it so much I thought I would “instablog” it ;-). (I do all my blogs on Instagram first, because otherwise I would exceed my character limit and go on for far too long! Hence, “instablog.”) I actually Googled it to make sure I wasn’t stealing someone else’s phrase. Well it didn’t show up, so I think I’m safe. All of you who can relate, even if you’re much, much younger than me (like I said, it’s all relative), you no longer need to think of yourself as old :-). You are simply the other side of young!

Solving Life’s problems, one at a time

So I just posted a Blog earlier, talking about (among other things) how wonderful my son was. Proud mama. But I was just thinking about some of his lesser qualities and thought I should share…to be fair, you know. Like when he informed me that he didn’t really think we should pay big bucks for very long to keep old people alive, cuz really they (we) are mostly only good for advice! Wow. Not one of my prouder moments. However, I am rather relishing my new position in life: #armchaircounselorselfappointed. Solving all of life’s problems, one at a time 🙂

“Moms just wanna’ lay down” (sung to the tune of Cyndi Lauper’s, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!”)

I could not find the picture I was looking for. I searched online for moms. What did I find but all these beautiful posed pictures of moms, pursuant to the Mother’s Day holiday we recently celebrated. I tried mothers, I tried tired moms and tired mothers. I tried moms with toddlers. Finally as you see in my picture, I searched on frenzied moms. The internet apparently can’t find any frenzied moms…I sure can! This whole post idea started because I am feeling overwhelmed dealing with my son’s Craigslist tire/wheel issues for 3 or 4 days now, and three sick cats, one of whom I have to feed every 3 hours through a feeding tube… I found myself crawling into bed the other afternoon humming (to the tune of Cyndi Lauper’s, “Girls Just Wanna’ Have Fun”)…”Moms just wanna lay do-own… we just wanna, we just wannaaa, that’s all we really wa…aaaaaant. Moms..just wanna lay down!” Enjoy your naps, mamas ;-).

Jingles as Life Messages?!

So lately thanks to a couple friends, I’ve been thinking a little bit about the messages that our Christmas carols are sending us. Here are a few:
1) From “So this is Christmas” – if we hope it’s a good year, that means one without any fear.
2) “Here Comes Santa Claus” – we have ascribed to Santa some qualities of God. He sees you when you’re sleeping, knows when you’re awake, when you’ve been bad or good…so we’d better watch out! Kinda’ creepy.
3) From “Little Drummer Boy” we learn that even poor boys want to give gifts to the King, to give Him their best, & He smiles at them. But maybe He just smiles because we want to please Him, because we love Him, & giving gifts is our love language? Maybe, like another poor boy, we should just give our hearts.
4) “All I want for Christmas” – all it takes to make us happy is to have what we don’t have!
5) If you see Mommy kissing Santa Claus under the mistletoe it could really mess with your mind…& no one will believe you. And mums, if your little boy sees you kissing Santa Claus he will tell Daddy! Hmmmm…a lot of these carols seem just like real life!
6) Frosty the Snowman has a really low toad-like voice.
7) Frosty did not obey the traffic cop when he said stop…he knew he had to hurry on his way before he melted…but he’ll be back some day, & hopefully that same traffic cop will not be angry with him.
8) If your true love truly loves you, starting on the 1st day of Christmas (December 25th) he should be giving you heaping helpings of poultry, graduating up to people (to milk your dairy cows, possibly a gift themselves), & on to royal people dancing & leaping, playing pipes & drumming…oh & a ring for every finger on your hand, or just enough gold rings to represent The Olympics.
9) If you really believe, Santa Baby will reward you by “showing you the money” – oh & by giving you a ring (just 1, not 5) – “I really do believe in you,
Let’s see if you believe in me.”
10) The thing that will make (bells) ring, is the carol that you sing right within your heart.
11) We tell a higher power how good we’ve been so that we can get what we want & we keep asking Him to tell us, if he can…do we ever grow out of this?!

Food as Punctuation?…! *#(;-)

Food as “punctuation” – ?! I’m finding myself out in the evenings more often this year (new classes to attend, & of necessity for day-workers, at night). I had already been aware that when I have an evening class or event & come home all revved up & excited about it (because, yes, I am an extrovert) I often want to grab for something to eat. I usually try to control the urge, as that is not a healthy lifestyle. After singing (in the evenings) I had thought that maybe I’d just expended so much energy my body needed to replenish it, even though my general rule is not to eat after 9 p.m. However, now I’m wondering again…WHY do I feel the need to eat at this hour? I want to stick to a “normal” bedtime, so I don’t really need a meal now, but oftentimes, it just somehow seems fitting. And during the day, it seems when I get up from doing something (at least after I’ve been concentrating at something for several hours) I find myself pulled to the kitchen in search of something to eat. Now granted, if it has been four to five hours I actually might be hungry & it might be time for a meal. But I’m thinking that maybe I just use food as “punctuation.” It marks a) the end of something; b) a pause in the middle of something; c) the “need to feed” can even serve as a question mark, when I don’t know quite what to do next. Or if I’m anxious or angry about something, an “!”… Food – the “comma” in my day! Food seems to mark divisions between tasks & periods of time, much as punctuation marks serve to divide thoughts, provide pause, indicate an end, a break, or in certain languages, even a beginning (the question mark BEFORE the question in the written Spanish language). Now mind you, I am not noticeably overweight, although I could lose a few pounds. But, food is not punctuation! I need to find new punctuation marks for my time! I’m sure someone has written about this, but I am full up on my reading list & don’t really want to read up on “food as your friend” issues just yet. Just putting it out there. No conclusion, no solution, not really even asking ;-). Just my thoughts on the matter – for today. Thanks for “listening”!

Um, Could You Act a Little More Like Me?…!

Ever notice how when we meet somebody we really like, sometimes we tend to ruin it by asking them in little ways to act just a little more like us, especially our mates? I almost caught myself doing the same thing with God! He told me something, and because I didn’t fully understand it or bother to clarify it, I found myself asking Him to please communicate differently with me! Wow, did I really just say, like, “God, could You make Yourself a little more like me?” :-0 – Bwahahaha….what an idiot! (Oh, pardon me, we’re not supposed to say that. But in this case…!?)

Pet dust bunnies?

So cool how my pet gate also serves to keep the “pet” dust bunnies in, so they do not fly away. Flying bunnies, isn’t that a cool picture?!

Hungry yet?

Ever notice how your hunger pangs act kind of like your alarm clock? You get one warning kind of loud, you hit “snooze” ‘cuz you’re not ready to get up yet, you keep hitting snooze ‘cuz every 10 minutes it goes off… and then eventually, after about an hour or so, especially if you’re not really hungry or needing food, it just goes away all together :-). Boom! Diet accomplished!

We’d like you to check your shoes, and I see you have bags to match?

And as long as they don’t try to make me check the other “bags” (like under my eyes, as in, “You’ll have to check those shoes, Ma’am … And I see you have the bags to match, you’ll have to check those, too!). P.S. – This is when you’re so addicted to social media that you want to comment back to your Maxine daily calendar page :-).