Self Esteem and Other Things

Hi,

I WILL leap back into the void and do Wordzzles again soon. I have just needed a break. I've been obsessed (without entirely knowing it) with the parole hearing for the boy (now a man) who murdered my older sister. It's over. He was denied. He will have another hearing two years from now, but for the moment it is resolved.

I hate sharing commercials and I don't particularly like Dove as a product, but I think this ad is PROFOUND so I'll give them some free advertising (not that many people visit these days. I imagine even the faithful few have given up the ghost). Still. I want to share it because I think it's really thought provoking.

The First Lady Speaks

I so admire this woman.

Taking a Break

Well, since I never came back to finish up last week's exercises and it's 9:00 PM and I haven't done anything this week, I think perhaps a wee break is in order. Not sure when I'll be back. Maybe next week or the week after or in April.

My apologies.

UPDATE:  Of course on the week that I decide to quit for a while, someone else had planned to participate. I received this in my email from Gabrielle at Wild Goose Scoops Moon.   It's a tribute to Le Chat, Henri of You Tube fame and I think it's quite brilliant. For those who have missed it, here's a link to Paw de Deux.

Ennui

J’entend les mots

Du chat Henri

What is this life

But rank ennui?

A bald cadence

Where obsessions reign

Stupid, ancient

Glorious ,vain.

Measurements

Of gross demeanor

Futile now as

Hearts grow leaner

The knife is sharp

The keys are flat

According to

One weary cat

Why all this bother

To salivate

Cold fish again

Predictably late.

A frizzed red ribbon

Catnip filled mice

Glittery balls

Meant to entice

Charisma, swag

So overrated

Moi, je prefere

What’s understated

But I grow tired

Of all this rhyme

Perpetual  iamb

And metered time

The languid rays

Of morning light

Disturb a nap

Bring back the night!

J’entend les mots

Du chat Henri

The stars go darK

Epistrophy

Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 236

Late again. I seem to be losing my enthusiasm for the task. Maybe it's winter blahs. I've posted the mega and the mini and will finish the 10-word after I have some supper... or tomorrow.  Sorry about my blahs and the weary heart of a lonely wordzzler.


Words for this week's 10-word challenge:  ennui, stars, salivate, charisma, perpetual, stupid, measurement, triangle, obsession, bother  And for the mini: gross, glorious, red ribbon, keys, sharp


My mega: 

Call it jealousy, but it really bothered her. Lucinda Jones could not understand for the life of her how that gross, odious and incredibly stupid woman Gracie - who went by the stage name Charisma and alternately (and perpetually) sang both sharp and flat, but never actually on key - had managed to find her way onto The Stars Have It and even to make it past some other contestants to the "red ribbon" phase of the competition. Ridiculous, unless "it" was a penchant for pretentiously overdone ennui, an obsession with her measurements and own image in the mirror. The woman had no talent and less brains, yet for some reason men salivated over her as though she was some glorious treasure. She had already been caught in more than one love triangle, but instead of making her the pariah she deserved to be, it seemed to increase her reputation as some kind of glorious celebrity. Life, Lucinda thought, was unfair.  Jack, her husband let her tirade run its course, smiling. Lucinda, my love. What do you care? Your talent is the real thing. I chose you over Charisma and so will any talent agent with half a brain and business sense. She's a flash in the pan. You are a gifted artist. You win across the board. Don't envy her. Pity her. 



My mini:

Looking at the keys hanging on the big red ribbon, Amanda Gross could not believe her good luck. She had entered the Sharp Estate win your own home contest on a whim. It had never occurred to her that she might win and now here she was, owner of a glorious new house.... and a car too. And a check for $100,000. Life was looking pretty darned good.


My 10-word:   Coming soon

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge:  elements, eyes, splatter, pragmatism, slate, foreign, smog, mustard, sand, copper

And for the mini: gratitude, animal speak, kissed by the moon, octapus, bargain

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.

Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 235

OK.... Someone else is thinking of joining in this week, so I have no more excuse to not do my own exercises.... Just as I started to work on these, I got company, so I'm running later than I had planned to. Sigh. Will post the first two and add the 10-word later.  LATER turned out to be 300 am. But I did it!


Words for this week's 10-word challenge were:  perplexed, imagination, chandelier, ball of yarn, carpenter, crocodile tears, shape, drop, pouring, the last straw   And for the mini: gambol, scarf, red peppers, puzzle, praise


My mega:

Miranda Carpenter didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she watched the her 16-year-old cat - aptly named Red Pepper for her not so mild temperament - gambol happily around the room turning her favorite scarf back into a ball of yarn. It was a perplexing puzzle to her why Red had not only not mellowed with age, but seemed to have grown in imagination and destructive creativity.  She had tried yelling, she had tried pouring on  praise for good behavior, she had tried spray bottles. Red Pepper seemed impervious to any and all kinds of discipline. She also seemed impervious to aging. She was in magnificent shape.  Miranda was pretty sure that her late husband Fred had secretly encouraged the old cat in her antics, though the last straw for him had been the morning he walked in to the dining room as she dropped gracelessly from the chandelier bringing it down with her in a shattered heap. He loved to tell the story, though, replete with crocodile tears, since he had quite hated the gaudy baubles which he found ostentatious, so even at her worst, the old cat had served his happiness. Because of that Miranda herself was prone to forgive the old monster almost anything... even her favorite scarf. "Come here you old scamp," she said, grabbing the big cat and hugging her close. "You are a scoundrel, but you always made Fred happy and for that I love you and forgive you anything. I can hear him laughing when I watch you play and that makes me feel less sad that he's gone. Thanks for that, my old friend. I love you."



My mini:

Standing at the altar in her wedding gown, Gambol Grace Johnson felt joy sweep over her. She had spent her life trying to live up to the silly name her parents had given her, but knew she had failed. They were, good, kindhearted people who had hoped to inspire in her the sense of adventure and self-confidence that they craved but did not themselves have. They lavished her with praise and rejoiced in her eccentricities and it puzzled them that she had not become a traveler or adventurer, but instead a banker whose most eccentric act was to wear a scarf decorated with red peppers. But then she had met her husband George - the adventurer her parents had always dreamed of. George had somehow managed to flick the switch on the daughter they had always dreamed of and having sowed her tame oats during her younger years, she was not free to fly. Best of all, George had helped her parents take their own baby steps into a more daring life. She knew she was blessed. He was her Angel and she knew that with him the future was going to be a joyful journey from now on.



And the 10-word:

When carpenter and handy man, Frank Wilson had hung Miranda Weathersmith's chandelier 3 years earlier, marriage had been the furthest thing from his mind and in his wildest imagination Miranda would not have been on the short list of eligible women. She would not have been on any list. He had detested her since they were children. She was one of the smart kids, the kind who had made him feel insecure and foolish and out of shape. When his mother had insisted that he drop by and help her out with some home repairs, he had been furious at her meddling. He knew what she was up to and trying to fix him up with Miranda had felt like the last straw. Then, when he arrived at her house and she opened the door, she had seemed very different that the girl he had resented all those years. She had a ball of yarn in her hands and a young kitten and she seemed surprisingly beautiful to him. It perplexed him that he had not noticed how pretty she was until now.  But when he had cut his hand and she had tended to it ever so gently, shedding tears at his injury - and not crocodile tears, very real ones - everything had changed. He had been consumed with love. Two years later they married and now they were about to have their first child. His mother - in a rare burst of good grace - never reminded him about how lucky that last straw had been for him.

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge:  ennui, stars, salivate, charisma, perpetual, stupid, measurement, triangle, obsession, bother

And for the mini: gross, glorious, red ribbon, keys, sharp

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.

Voting Rights

Please consider reading the article and signing this important petition (there's a link at the end of the article).  Petition

Wordzzle Apology

Apparently, I'm not going to do the wordzzles this week. Moving the day does not seem to have worked out as I intended. I half forgot and half just don't want to do it. Since it's now Sunday afternoon and my resistance remains more than firm, I think I'll just plan to do this week's words next week. I'll repost them below..   I apologize. I just really can't seem to get myself to do it. Even guilt isn't working.

*****

Words for next week's 10-word challenge:  perplexed, imagination, chandelier, ball of yarn, carpenter, crocodile tears, shape, drop, pouring, the last straw

And for the mini: gambol, scarf, red peppers, puzzle, praise

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.

Change Mandatory Sentencing Laws

Our prison system is in need of major reform. Thought this was worth sharing.  We have TWENTY FIVE percent of the world's prisoners. 25%. And we do nothing to rehabilitate those lives while they are locked up. Crazy.

Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 234

Friday has snuck up on me once again. I think that starting next week, I'll go back (way, way back) to posting on Saturday since that seems to be what I'm doing in any case.  For tonight, I'll put Mr. Linky and next week's words up and post my exercises tomorrow (hopefully).

SATURDAY, 5:30 pm:  Done. This was a touch batch of words. I think next week's may be worse. Time will tell, I guess.


Words for this week's 10-word challenge:  wonderful,  open to interpretation, war and peace, grow, glowing embers, hummingbirds, a loaf of bread, careful, snoop   And for the mini: signals, spelling, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, snow storm, grace



My mega:

Grace Torgenson carefully removed the freshly baked loaf of bread from the wood fired oven, savoring the smell of the bread and the warmth of kitchen in the chilly house. She added a couple of additional logs to the glowing embers and watched them slowly blaze into flame. Despite the cold and inconvenience, she was secretly thrilled to be trapped in this old estate by the unexpected blizzard. Negotiations with the two embassadors had not been going well and they each had threatened to bolt at least once over the course of the previous two days. She was hoping that they would take discussions of war and peace more seriously without the distractions of electricity and telephones. She felt a bit like it was divine intervention that even the cell phone signals had been blocked - at least for the moment - by the massive snow storm.  Snooping through the cabinets in the kitchen, she found a set of china plates decorated with hummingbirds and placing the sliced up loaf of bread on one of them, carried it out to the next room where she found the politicians and their staffs gathered. "Good morning, gentlemen. A little sustenance to see us through. There's more in the kitchen, including an effort at coffee, which I can't promise will be palatable. But I tried. Here is the situation. On the down side, we are trapped here for the unforseeable future. On the up side, there is nothing to distract you from making an effort to come to some agreement. We have choices. We can see this as a dreadful inconvenience or as a wonderful opportunity for you to grow closer to an agreement. I opt for the latter, myself.  Let's put another log on the fire, break bread together and begin spelling out what each of you truly needs to come to some kind of agreement for the good of your own people and the rest of the world. What I'm going to say next may be open to interpretation (or not), but you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. My staff have taken custody of all the wood and food in the house.and I have the keys to the kitchen, so from now on, you can either work together or get hungry and cold together. My staff and I will be warm and well fed whatever you gentlemen decide. If you think I am kidding, you are mistaken. Enjoy your breakfast."  Telling the story years later, she admitted that it had been an enormous gamble on her part and that she was stunned by her own temerity. It was something about the house she said and her sense that the storm had been a divine intervention. In any case, whether she had been right or wrong, it had worked out and the resulting treaty was so much better than anyone had expected, that even the ambassadors had forgiven her.



My mini:

Grace Spelling looked out at the after math of last night's snow storm and was  happy to see her handsome neighbor, shovel in hand, waving from across the street. She had a terrible crush on him, but was never sure whether he felt anything in return. To say that he gave mixed signals was to put it mildly indeed. Bounding across to her door, he beamed happily at her. "Would you like me to clear your snow for you, Grace? Glad to do it for you on a 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours," basis. I shovel show and you make me some hot cocoa and a hearty breakfast. Do we have a deal?" "Sounds like a double win for me, George" she smiled, her heart beating a little faster. "I get my snow shoveled and good company to share a meal with." "Okee Dokee," he responded, with not a hint of flirtation in his voice. Sighing she turned back into the house and began to prepare a meal that she hoped might open his heart as well as satisfy his stomach.


My mega:


Sitting in front of the glowing embers of last night's fire, Grace Spelling - well it was Grace Anderson now -could not believe how wonderful her life had become. Pulling the curtains aside to snoop bit on the world outside, she was elated to see three hummingbirds feasting on the bougainvillea flowers. For such a long time George's every sentence had seemed alternately warm and open, careful or confusingly open to interpretation. She had felt like he was interested in her - he made it a point to always seek her out and talk to her and to do things to help her, but somehow he managed to do so in a way made her want to tear her hair out with frustration. Then, the morning of the big snowstorm last winter, he had shoveled her snow and come for breakfast, something had changed. Over coffee and bacon and eggs, they had talked politics, war and peace, economics, the environment and continuing over lunch and then dinner had moved on to politics. He had gone back across the street briefly to get some ingredients for dinner and had walked in carrying two bottles of wine, while reciting the words that would glow in her heart forever: "A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou..." from the Rubaiyat of Omar Kayyam. Once he had opened up to her, George Anderson proved to be possibly the most romantic man on earth. Their love had continued to grow after that snowy morning and six weeks later he had asked her to marry him. Six months later, here they were on their honeymoon, awash in the poetry of love and beautiful surroundings. She loved that there were hummingbirds outside the window. Native Americans thought of hummingbirds as bringers of joy.  Looking over at her new husband as he slept peacefully in their bed, she thought she was awash in joy already, but still, she thought, there can never be too much joy. She would name their first child joy, she thought, placing her hand on her belly. She was sure, somehow that last night they had made more than just love. Nine months later, she was proven to be right.

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge:  perplexed, imagination, chandelier, ball of yarn, carpenter, crocodile tears, shape, drop, pouring, the last straw

And for the mini: gambol, scarf, red peppers, puzzle, praise

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.

Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 233

Well, it has been an odd week in which things didn't happen on their traditional days, so I have been caught off guard by Friday once again. Assuming that the big blizzard does not take out my power (probably won't), I'll put my exercises up tomorrow (Saturday). It was nice to have a second wordzzler last week.

SATURDAY UPDATE:  I'm sick. I'll live, but I'm feeling really miserable, so I may postpone my posing until tomorrow.... or at best later today after I've taken a nap. My apologies for being later even than usual.

LATE SUNDAY NIGHT:  Sunday came and went and I totally forgot about Wordzzles. Tomorrow, hopefully, I will remember. Apologies.

6:15 MONDAY EVENING: Finally.... 


Words for this week's 10-word challenge:  whiskers, three days, banana, strength in numbers, all year long, large tree, good housekeeping, there are no accidents, recorder, stain   And for the mini: smooth, partridge, snarling, tragic, lotion




My mega: 

All year long, Samantha Partridge had struggled to win the Good Housekeeping and best Christmas tree award from the Banana Beach Country Club ladies. She knew in her heart that they were awful women, unworthy of her desire to please them, yet she wanted so badly to "belong," that she had saved and slaved, chosen an especially beautiful and large tree,spent three days decorating it to what she hoped was elegant perfection. Her family had spent weeks living in a state of tortured warnings and reprimands and been forced into frequent and frantic servitude. There was not a spot or stain or flake of dust anywhere. The night before the judging, over the protests of her husband, they had dined out and spent the night in a hotel. "I want to make sure there are no accidents," she had told her grumbling spouse, as she covered her face and body in an assortment of lotions and creams to ensure that her face and hands were smooth and unblemished.. "Strength in numbers," she had said, gathering the family around her next morning. They arrived home just as the committee pulled up. "You all have your video recorders charged and ready to document the big event?" she whispered anxiously?  Alas - although the scene WAS recorded for posterity - it was not the moment of glory she had dreamed of, but rather a tragic nightmare of wires and ornaments strewn around the room and a snarling and rather exhausted cat - Whiskers by name - struggling and pinned beneath the giant tree which had finally gotten its revenge after several hours of feline assault. Needless to say, Samantha didn't win the award that year, but it turned out that the Country Club ladies were not such snobs after all. Since Samantha's tree had been the last on their list, the were able -with a lot of laughter and good humor, to help the family restore the fallen tree to at least a bit of its former glory.  In the end, she did much better than first prize. She made a number of friends and the Committee created the first annual Whiskers award, which was granted in future years to others whose aspirations of glory met with unkind ends. 


My mini: 

Fred McMurphy smoothed a heavy lather of shaving lotion on his face, bellowing "come on get happy" (he had come of age with the Partridge Family and associated them with romance) - in a very loud voice, totally oblivious of the snarling dog just outside the bathroom door and the very unromantic and somewhat tragic end his new relationship was about to experience. 



And the mega:


There are no accidents was a message the new puppy had apparently not heard or had no interest in learning. All year long, the family had worked on her and finally at Christmas time, she had let her husband persuade her to get a puppy for the kids, but cute as he was, in only three days he had managed to undermine her sense of peace and tranquility and all her years of good housekeeping. She knew it made her a bad mother and maybe even a bad person, but she hated this little dog. Her son had named him Whiskers, but she had several other names for him, none of which were appropriate for polite society. The little monster had a penchant for pooping on her carpets which now bore permanent stains which no amount of scrubbing would remove.Yesterday, he had managed to get himself up onto the counter where he had first pushed her freshly baked banana cream pie onto the floor, eaten half of it and tracked the rest through several rooms. He had gotten hold of the beloved recorder she had had since childhood and gnawed the mouthpiece so that it was no longer usable (plus it had dog saliva on it). That had been the last straw for her really, which was why he was tied up to a large tree in the back yard. George and the kids might have strength in numbers, but unless - and even if - they were willing to do the laundry, the cooking and the housework themselves, this particular dog was going to have to go. An hour later, when she went to take him some water and food, he greeted her with those big eyes and a wagging tail, and tried to snuggle up against her, she felt her stance weaken. "You get one more chance, you little monster and you had better shape up. We'll take you to obedience school and if you learn to behave, you can stay. If not....  That had been 15 years ago.... and now she sat holding the little body that had become so dear to her -especially after the kids had left for college - grateful for all the joy he had brought to all of them. Her husband sat beside her also weeping. They had decided to bury him by the big tree she had exiled him to those many years ago and get a little stone dog to mark his place. "You were the best worst dog in the world, you little monster. I don't know how we'll manage without you, but thank you for the time we had. I love you." Then she nodded to her husband, who began to dig.

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge:  wonderful, secretly, open to interpretation, war and peace, grow, glowing embers, hummingbirds, a loaf of bread, careful, snoop

And for the mini: signals, spelling, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, snow storm, grace

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.