nananoyz

Something I Love

I’m sitting at Whole Foods enjoying a non-fat chai latte, medium, almost too hot to drink, and checking my email on my phone. There’s a funny message from Studly Doright. It was sent to three recipients: our son, our daughter, and me. It struck me how much I love that–that our family group is united in that email. Even though we’re hundreds of miles apart, Studly knew we’d all find the message amusing. At some point today each person will read, giggle, and perhaps shake his/her head at what our well-loved patriarch has wrought.

Yes. This is something I love.

Rules

I am
words
Inside and out
Corridors papered
With shoulds
And should nots
Conduits some,
Obstacles others.

If I dance it’s only
Because the words
In my soul
Instruct me to twirl.
And if I cry it’s
Not for a lack
Of words
But almost
Certainly due
To an
Abundance of
Rules.

Decorating Do’s, Dont’s, and Ne’er-do-walls

Have your ever shopped tirelessly for just the right piece of furniture or art for a specific spot in your home only to discover that upon finding the object of your search and placing it in that perfect spot that either the object is all wrong or the spot is all wrong? Yea, me neither. Ha. Ha Ha. Sob.

Actually, that’s my normal modus operandi. I wasn’t blessed with the decorating gene, so a lot of my style is by trial and error. After error. After error. Eventually I’ll wind up with something I like, and then, by golly, nobody better move it around.

Take this fun piece:

I bought it to hang in my dining room for three reasons:

1) To tone down the formality of the room. The drapes are formal and the chandelier is so not us.

2) To economically decorate a large white wall.

It almost meets that goal; although, it needs a little something to make it pop.

And,

3) The woman in the picture reminds me of my mom shown here with my dad circa 1957-ish.

So, do I find another place for the picture and keep on searching for something that works, or do I leave it and rid myself of the drapes and chandelier?

I really like my table and server. I just need (free) help pulling it all together.

Peace, People!

Stained Glass

Beautiful! I reblogged this.

nature has no boss

When photographing this Chickadee it felt like looking into a wonderful stained glass window. This Chickadee was in a dark forest of thorny shrubs with just a hint of light shining in through the golden leaves that still remain on the trees behind. As a bonus we were treated to the choir singing away with a chorus of Dee-Dee-Dees from deeper within these bushes.

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Way Cool

Some bikes need their own post. We stumbled onto this BMW with sidecar in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store. The owner/rider said it was “mostly ’70’s”. Studly and I were impressed. Sometimes you’ve just got to stop and ogle the ride.

By the way, the rider used the sidecar for his groceries. Who needs saddlebags?

Long Distance Grandparenting

Studly and I live in north Florida. Two of our grandchildren live in Texas and three live in Illinois. Needless to say I don’t get to see them often. But thanks to this new-fangled invention called the Internet 😉 we manage to stay close.

This past weekend technology almost made it feel as though I was right in my daughter’s home in Illinois. She and the youngest grandchild, 2 1/2 year-old Harper, called me on FaceTime as they often do just to show off some new song or skill Harper has learned.

During this call I asked Harper about her new “big girl bed.” She got so excited and asked her mom if she could hold the phone. That’s when the adventure began. Harper carried the phone down the hall and into her room. She placed the phone on her pillow exclaiming proudly that Nana was in the big girl bed.

I pretended to be a baby and cried quite convincingly. So Harper told me not to cry and showed me her dolls and stuffed animals: Apple Dumpling, Hello Kitty, and a baby named, appropriately, “Baby.”

Harper read me a story about a puppy named Biscuit. When I asked to see the pictures she’d lay the book on top of the phone. We played and talked in this manner for at least half an hour, then Harper covered me up with her blanket and left the room.

A few minutes later her mom came in and found the phone. Apparently I was supposed to be sleeping.

Now to those of you who are fortunate enough to be able to hug and kiss your grandchildren every day this might seem kind of silly. I’d give anything for even 10 minutes of in-person time with my grands, but this interaction was incredibly sweet. Harper didn’t seem at all bothered that Nana was in the phone.

Peace, People!

I Finally Saw “Saw”

For years I’ve heard about the “Saw” movies, but I’ve always avoided them on principle. How I wish I’d stuck to said principle. Holy crap! What sick, twisted mind came up with this stuff?

Just in case you haven’t watched them (don’t!), they all seem to feature this deranged clown character who sets up problems to be solved by ordinary people who face certain death if they are unable to solve said problems. Oh, and the deaths aren’t quick, merciful ones. They’re bloody, tortuous, scream generating affairs involving self-mutilations.

In one of the “Saw” vignettes I just saw, er, watched, a man was attempting to free his wife from being burned alive by placing hooks in his pectoral muscles and pulling himself to the top of the room in order to unite two electrical connections thus freeing his wife. Now, I love Studly, but there’s no way I am puncturing my pectorals to save him, nor would I expect him to do that for me. Oh, and the hooks tore through the man’s muscles, so it was all for naught anyway.

I didn’t intend to see “Saw,” but it seems that once seen, “Saw” cannot be unseen. Unspeakable. I say, don’t see “Saw.”

Happy nightmares.

You can’t find what you can’t see

Ok, this is what I went through this morning. I got up extra early to go over the intervention lessons that I offered to teach for a friend today. Showered, dressed, ate breakfast, readied the house for the housekeeper, and then practiced the lessons. All was well. Then I realized I didn’t have my glasses on. Not only that, but they weren’t in any of the usual places. I checked and rechecked but it’s hard to find one’s glasses when one has lost one’s glasses.

I was quickly running out of time, so thinking quickly (stop laughing!) I grabbed my prescription sunglasses out of my motorcycle ditty bag. At least I could drive legally. Now, I had to decide if I had time to stop for my morning caffeine fix. The answer was a resounding “of course, you fool” so I ran into a convenience store, grabbed a cup, and promptly sprayed myself with Diet Coke. A little adjustment of the nozzle actually put some soda in my cup, but now I’m a mess. No time to go go home, so I mopped up with wet paper towels, paid for my soda, and hurried on my way.

The front parking lot at the school was completely full, so I parked far away in what I lovingly call the “back forty.” From here, it’s quite a hike to the office, but I was still at least 15 minutes early when I got to our little classroom. But the door which is never locked was locked. So I went in search of a key. That was fairly easy and only cost a couple of minutes, but I couldn’t get it to turn in the lock. Finally a nice teacher came by and used her key on the door. Great! I found a student to return the key I’d borrowed and went about setting up materials for the lessons with five minutes to spare. Whew! Wrong!

Just as I headed out the door to pick up my four students the custodian came by and said he needed to move me to another room. Since I’m a guest at the school I said, “Sure!” much more pleasantly than I felt.

Of course this new classroom was almost out where my car is parked. Quickly I got all my stuff arranged and went to pick up the kids. The intervention lessons proceeded smoothly in spite of it all, and even though we started late we managed to end right on time. Then I figured I had time to run home, change clothes, and look for my glasses.

The housekeeper (the most wonderful woman in the history of the world, next to my mom and my mother-in-law) had just arrived and she and I scoured the house from top to bottom. No glasses. I decided that the cats must have knocked them off the back of the dresser, but I’d have to wait until my hubby, Studly Doright, came home to move it for me.

I decided to grab a bottle of water out of the fridge before I left the house and wow. There were my glasses sitting next to a gallon of 2% milk. Now I know I’m getting old and forgetful, but how in the world did that happen? Never mind that, I needed to go to my next school.

Giving Rosa a hug I ran to the car and headed to my next school. It was only when I sat down that I realized I was still wearing my Diet Coke stained shirt. Have Mercy! Life is good and today is Friday.

Hope this made my readers feel super smart today!

Peace, People!

Looking Ahead

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. It’s a little depressing to know that I’ll be cooking a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner for just Studly and me. I know, we could open our doors to others, but Studly isn’t into that sort of thing. He just wants family around on holidays. So, I’ll cook a small turkey and make my mom’s recipe for cornbread dressing. We’ll have cranberry sauce, green bean casserole (ugh!), and some kind of fruit salad. It’s nothing fancy, but tradition (Studly) demands it, and he doesn’t demand much.

My brain is already looking ahead to Christmas. For the first time in many years our family will be together for Christmas. I can’t even tell you how much this means to me and how very excited I am! I could use multiple exclamation marks and they still wouldn’t convey my excitement. Our son and his family live in Texas, our daughter and her family are in Illinois. Studly and I live in Florida. My heart longs for us to be together, and on December 24, 2014, that will happen.

We are renting a home in Nashville, Tennessee, a location fairly equidistant to all of us, give or take a couple of hours. We’ve booked a trip to the Grand Ole Opry on the 26th and a trip to a place where we’ll be locked together in a room and have to solve a mystery as a team in order to escape on the 27th (http://nashvilleescapegame.com).

But I just want to see my grand babies playing silly games together. I want to see their eyes light up when Santa visits. I want to help them leave treats for Santa’s reindeer on the lawn in front of our house. This photo was taken the last time we were all together in one spot.

Harper, the baby, is two now, so it’s about time we got together as a family again.

These are the kids I can’t sit to hug:

The Illinois bunch

And the Texas two.

Peace (and LOVE), People!

St. George Island Musings

Almost a year ago, my mother-in-law and I took a drive down to St. George Island, off the coast of Florida in the northern Gulf of Mexico. It was a grey, wintry day and the Gulf roiled with barely leashed energy.

We watched this gentleman, a Brit from his accent, set out on the waters in a kayak. He told us he was going to paddle around the small island. It took him awhile to get underway, but once the waves took him we quickly lost sight of his small craft.

I’ve often wondered how he fared on his solitary journey around the island. Did he encounter any dolphins? Did his craft serve him well? For how long was he out in the waves off of St. George Island? I guess I’ll never know.

Peace, People.

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