The Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 39

This is week 39 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. Sorry for posting this so late. I have now figured out that Shannon likes to visit me on Friday after school, so I need to factor that into my scheduling. I think I had something else to say but I don't remember what it was, so.... happy wordzzling. Looking forward to what you have all wrought.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: palace, hypocrite, canned air, telephone, biscuit, pinball, acorn, customary, fruit juice, waterfall Mini Challenge: buyer's remorse, lava, haphazard, mildew, soup to nuts

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

Wondering vaguely what the radio personality meant when he referred to canned air, Ophelia Jones quickly forgot the question as she gazed around her beautiful new home. As was now her customary habit, she sat in her magnificent kitchen with its awesome view of the mountains, nibbling a fresh baked biscuit and drinking newly squeezed fruit juice. Her new house was a palace. Well not a real palace, but enough of a palace to make her happy. This kitchen had everything: an Acorn-shaped telephone, a computer desk/office corner… there was even a waterfall built into one wall… and one outside by the pool as well. The only room she liked better than the kitchen in her amazing mansion, was the game room right next to it which featured a theatre sized screen and seating, a state of the art Nintendo, a pinball machine and a host of other goodies. Ophelia felt like something of a hypocrite as she basked in all this glory, as she had made her money writing about the virtues of poverty versus great wealth. Oh well, she thought. Live and learn.

And here's my mini challenge:

Harold looked around at the house he had bought on the internet. From the mildew on the walls in several rooms to the lava mound just short of the back door, the house was a soup to nuts object of buyer’s remorse. Even the haphazard layout was a nightmare. It’s only virtue – and this was a big one – was that it was in Hawaii and the view (especially if he razed the house) would be worth every penny he had so impulsively spent.

And the mega challenge:

“Gadgets, gadgets, gadgets,” Mildred sang happily as she walked into the 2008 Gadgets, Inventions and New Stuff Exhibition at the Palace Hotel in Las Vegas. Her customary euphoria as she entered the hotel for her annual pilgrimage into the world of cool toys was a song in her heart. Anyone who pretended not to be awed by this magical world of foolish and useful inventions was nothing more than a hypocrite as far as she was concerned. This magical, haphazard, hall of wonders had something for everyone... “soup to nuts, Biscuit” (his nickname for her) Charlie had liked to say. She had met him right here 40 years ago looking at lava lamps which had been one of the big sellers at that year’s convention. It had been love at first sight and they had taken advantage of Vegas’ wedding chapels, married and lived in unmarred bliss for 40 years. No buyer’s remorse for either of them. And each year they celebrated their anniversary with a return to this shoppers wonderland. They had found their first canned air canister here and had bought a one of those tiny telephones – what were they called? – cell telephones – before anyone else had one. Friends had laughed at them but their antique cell was now a collector’s item. For their 25^th anniversary they had splurged on a gadget that circulated water in a kind of waterfall right in the wall of the house. That was one of her favorites, along with the machine that converted ordinary fruit juice into some very fine tasting alcohol. Their most pragmatic purchase was an incredible mildew remover made out of a blend of acorns and an assortment of other ingredients. It worked like magic. Besides the fact that they lived eternally mildew-free, they had bought stock in that one and it had paid off handsomely. Last year they had gotten a pinball machine that was computerized to convert to a variety of games and programs. Charlie had loved that game. She had thought about staying home this year, now that Charlie was gone, but she was glad she had changed her mind. There were so many happy memories attached to the exhibition and she could feel Charlie’s presence with her. “Let’s go shopping, honey bun,” she whispered to his unseen presence.

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: Vortex, lily, ineluctable, pernicious, trout, May Pole

"Ineluctable modality of the visible," James Joyce had written in Ulysses. Sam never quite knew what that meant, but it sounded so beautiful and he felt that in this moment he was living it, wandering into this sweet country village, away from the pernicious smells and sounds of the big city. Here all was greens and browns and blue skies and gentle noises. The town center had a tall May Pole and as he had arrived the previous day, a dozen children garlanded in ribbons and lilies had chanted in a merry circle, their laughter floating like butterflies in the air. He had read of vortexes, where the energy was deep and spiritual. Maybe this was one of them. It was also a good fishing place and he smiled contentedly as he reeled in his third trout for the day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Special thanks to Melli and to Chatty for 10 of the challenge words... I added 5 too.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: moisturizing, pickles, seat belt, flip-flop, Chicago, allergies, doctor, ready or not here I come, computer programmer, dog biscuits

Mini Challenge: gluttony, mercurial, tennis bracelet, anchor, molten

PLEASE NOTE: Akelamalu pointed out that she thinks these words (or some of them) are repeated from a few weeks back. I wasn't sure... they do seem kind of familiar but the making up words front seems like kind of a blur and I think I might have reused some of the donated words from melli and chatty, so..... I made a new list and posted them HERE. Feel free to use whichever set you want to. I'm fine with either one. Hope that's ok with everyone.

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Gratitude, Day 14

Another gloomy gray day here in Hancock. Today, I'm grateful that I can get up on my own schedule and that my aches are a little less than they were yesterday.

I was lying in bed not getting up this morning and thinking about what I wanted to say for this morning's gratitude. The first thing that came into my head was that I was grateful for having had my sister for as long as I had her. Then, I thought that I was even grateful for my brother... and from there it went to the whole psycho family. Unfortunately most of the old family photos I had scanned some years back were erased by a virus and my scanner died before I could rescan them, so I have just a few photos that will have to do for my family. In the end, even though they were deeply dysfunctional, I'm grateful for the family I grew up in. "It's them what made me who I is," as they say (do they say that? Who are they?) ... good and bad.

My Mother: My mother messed me up pretty badly, but she didn't do it with any malice and for all that she gave me many of my fragilities, she also gave me many of my strengths. Given even what I know about the childhood she endured - and I know too much - that my mother was as sane and balanced as she was is a tribute to her strength of spirit. My mother thought she was homely. I thought she was beautiful. She had a wry sense of humor, a very keen and inquiring mind, and an absolute passion for justice and truth. She was a plain cook, but she was a good one. I think she put the love she couldn't express elsewhere into cooking. She wanted her children to be happy. She wanted us to get along. She wanted to be a good mother. She just sucked at it. She wanted peace at the price of truth. She grew up with such abuse that she thought peace at any price was the answer. For whatever reason my mother projected a lot of stuff onto me. I was the youngest, I guess, and I was deeply empathic. And probably it was the timing of my arrival in her life following the loss of a baby born during the war (WW2) and after the war when she and my father had gone through separate hells and weren't ever able to quite reclaim whatever I imagine they had before he was gone to sea for years. In any case, I adored my mother. She never saw her own beauty and I don't think she ever saw me, but I saw her. Despite her inability to hug or praise, despite her dementia in her last years, there were times when I swear she glowed with light. I wanted her love more than almost anything in the world. And I probably had it even though I didn't feel it. Being human is such a complicated mess. But anyway, much of a hatchet as she took to my psyche, I wouldn't trade her for anyone else.

My Father: My father was a good man and a kind one. He was also an alcoholic. He loved music. He played the mandolin and he and I spent lots of time at the piano. I had a huge repertoire of folk songs under my fingers by the time I was seven or 8. It was all very idyllic except that it wasn't. A big part of my role in the family was to be my father's keeper when he was drunk, which was most of the time. It took me quite a few years in therapy to face the truth that wonderful as our music sessions were, they were also very frightening to me. It was often not my father but some bleary eyed, swaying weird person who sat too close to me on the piano bench and tuned and re-tuned his mandolin over and over and over. But this is a gratitude day. The positives of my father; there were many: He was brilliant. He was an actuary (math genius). He was generous. He literally gave someone the shirt off his back. He was kind to the core. Even drunk, he was never mean or violent. Tasteless and stupid, maybe, truly repulsive, but never mean. He never met a pun he didn't like. I've always said I'm a kernel off the old cob. And he was loyal. He adored my mother and dedicated himself to her in her last years in a way that most men would not have done. He stopped drinking after she got sick. I was the one who confronted him about it. He was very gracious about it, actually. He was ready, I think. But that's a story for another day. When I was very little, my father and I would make up chain stories as part of my bed time ritual. Or he would read to me. One of our favorite poems came from a book of bad poetry (literally). It was written in dialect and was nauseatingly corny. It began: "Da Spring has come, but oh da joy it is too late/da littla boy he no could wait..." My dad and I cried. Silly us.

My sister: Carole was as good a sister as a kid (or and adult) could have asked for. She was 10 years older than me. She was an instinctive mother, I think, and I suspect I got a lot of the mothering I got from her. I probably owe what sanity I have to her love and sister-mothering. As I've written before, my sister introduced me to all kinds of books and music. She read to me, she wrote to me and she encouraged my own writing. She took me to Europe when I was in my 20s! She was generous and funny and everything you could want from a sister. And she left behind three amazing children who I adore and love as though I had given birth to them myself.

My brother: My brother Phil actually led to this post. I thought about how grateful I am to have had my sister. My brother is harder. He and I have been estranged for the past 22 years. When he dies, perhaps I'll write about how and why that came to pass, but while he is still alive, I've chosen not to speak of it in detail. And this post is about gratitude. When I was a little girl, I adored my brother. He was handsome and brilliant. He's a genius... IQ of 162 or something like that. He was funny. He played with me a lot for someone almost 8 years older than me. Sometimes he would turn into a robot named Tobar. Sometimes we would do take-offs on Sky King (ancient TV show) .... Earth Queen and Nickle, I think our characters were... I wore glasses starting at about age 8. Making fun of the TV shows of the 50s, I would whip my glasses off and he'd pronouce. "Why, Miss Jones, you're beautiful." (Like Miss Jones in the movies hadn't been drop-dead gorgeous with the glasses on... ugh. But I digress.) There are darker aspects to even my childhood relationship with my brother, but there were these moments too. And along with my sister's murder, my brother's malevolence and cruelty ultimately pushed me into therapy. That's a gift he gave me. One of the ugly wrapping paper ones. But sometimes those are the best.

I'm not sure I'm sounding very grateful in this post. I'm not doing my family justice. My parents were amazing people. Screwed up as hell, but also amazing. My sister was such a gift in my life. My brother not so much, but still he is part of who I am. We are all shaped by our family relationships and experiences, good and bad. I am who I am because of the best and worst of my family. It's easy (I'm very prone to do this) to focus on the negative impact, but much as these 4 people re-enforced and helped create some of my weaknesses, they also re-enforced, created and nurtured some of my strengths. Truth is that some of my strengths and weaknesses are the same traits used differently.

So today, I am grateful for the people who formed me, for the love and the pain and the wonder of knowing them. Another plug for Dr. Jim here. I'm so grateful I found a therapist who has been able to slowly navigate my pain and confusion about this family of mine. I'm not sure what would have happened to me if I hadn't found him. I don't even like to think about it. So I'm also grateful again for James Mulry, wise and patient demystifyer of family dysfunction. Working with me probably qualifies him for sainthood.

So that's it for today. This is kind of a garbled mess.... but family does that to me.

Have a great day.

Gratitude, Day 13

BRRRRRRR!!!!!

Today I'm grateful for my hideous fuzzy robe that is my winter uniform. I have three of these robes. They are kind of ugly but they were cheap and they are warm. With them and a layer or two underneath them I stay pretty warm in winter. I don't know if it's because I'm a little under the weather or because I'm getting OLD, but I'm having a harder time sticking to 60 degrees this year. I may have to up the ante to 62 or 63. Still, that's pretty good. I have a kind of perverse pride in being able to keep my thermostat so low. Helps that my little house came with so much insulation. Boy am I grateful for that. My "new" (2 years old now!) windows help too. But back to the fuzzy robes. Cheap and very warm and comfortable. The gray one has little stars and hearts on it. I'm not big on patterns and the gray is kind of dull but it's better than the blue one which has some other thing on it that I hate so much I can't even remember what it is... BUT... they are warm and so I'm very very grateful for them.


I'm so grateful for my windows too which are two years old now. When I first moved into this house the windows were very old, small and at a height which made it virtually impossible for me to see out even standing up. I needed help from friends to exchange the screens and storm windows so I only replaced a couple of them and the front door my first year here. I'm so glad I let myself dream a little and I let the window people come to give me an estimate. I assumed when I did so that I wouldn't be able to afford fixing them. But then something wonderful happened. Even though fixing my windows doubled my debt, the window company refinanced my existing debt so that I wound up with new windows and lower monthly payments... plus a view and lower fuel bills. I give thanks every day for these windows. The cats love them and so do I. They even give me contact with my neighbors as they pass by. The man at the top of the hill has severe back problems and though he can walk, mostly he uses one of those mobility chairs. At present my house is not accessible to him, but he always waves when he goes past in his chair or in the car. It's a friendship of sorts made possible by my windows. His wife stops by the window some days with her grandson to visit Angel and to chat. I can take pictures and watch the squirrels and the birds and the world around me. What a profound gift these windows have been for me. And I'm grateful that Angel and Tara get great pleasure from them too.

And I see so many beautiful things out my windows. The photos below aren't very good, but they aren't photo-shopped, either. They were an effort to catch the gorgeous pink skies I see from my window some nights. My camera just can't capture it for real. It's so beautiful and I'm so grateful for that beauty and the the fact that I get to see it and at least try to share it.




Guess that's it for today. Hope you have a splendid day

Gratitude, Day 12

Oh, dear. Not feeling so well this morning. Went to bed early last night only to spend most of it feeling ill, so I didn't get much sleep and have woken up achy, tired and a touch cranky. Angel who I quite literally shrieked at this morning (she was swinging one of the pictures over the sofa with wild enthusiasm and not responding to polite or even loud "no's"), would probably say that cranky is something of an understatement. I have a hint of a headache and I'm chilly and all I really want to do is go back to bed. So much so, in fact, that there's a good chance I'll do that in a little while. So anyway, it's the kind of morning when gratitude isn't just bouncing around my psyche waiting to get out. I'm having to dig a bit. But there's always something there.

At this moment as I type this, the aforementioned naughty Angel is sitting on my hands and kneading and purring and warming my chilly heart and body up. How can I not be grateful for that? How can I not be grateful that she forgives me my grouchy moments and that she loves me. And I'm always grateful when Tara Grace comes by to sit and stare and let me touch her. She has come so far in the past 4 years.

And I live a life where when I wake up feeling like I do this morning, I CAN just go back to bed and try to sleep it off. So I'm grateful for that.

And I'm grateful that it's a gorgeous day outside. The sun is out and there are pretty clouds highlighting the lacework of the winter branches. I'm grateful that I have my wonderful little camera and can just grab it up and take as many pictures as I want. What a gift digital cameras are. I'm grateful that even though I did damage the light sensor stupidly taking pictures of the sun (seemed like a good idea at the time), the camera still works by and large.

Surely this is a day when I'm grateful for my "thank you for everything, I have no complaints whatsoever mantra." It's the days when I don't even begin to mean it that it comes in most handy.

And the Wrap Up....

Jay, at Baily's Buddy posted this and I have shamelessly stolen it. It is just brilliant and too painfully close to the truth for me. I figured I bored you all to tears for months, perhaps you might enjoy this...

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Gratitude, Day 11

Well, today being the second Tuesday of the month is a Schwan's day. I am so grateful for Schwan's. I borrowed the photo two paragraphs below from Schwan's website. Chicken pot pie is my favorite meal... that and egg rolls. They used to have really good quesadillas but they changed them and I don't like them at all any more. Too bad... they were really good. But anyway...

When I first moved to Hancock, I found someone to shop for me for a modest fee every three or 4 weeks. The first person I found was nice enough but very unreliable. Then I discovered Jen who had just moved here with her husband. They were trying to set up a business and were struggling to survive. She did my groceries, helped me with some other chores and she and her husband ended up painting my little house it's lovely green color for a very modest price. In my backwards world, Jen - who was working for me for offensively little money - actually ended up giving me a beautiful set of dishes which I treasure. My world got upgraded from plastic to china by the person buying my groceries for me for almost no money. Eventually, Jen found a real job and one of my friends took over and shopped for me when she could. I was eating vegetarian at the time so I could fit a lot of veggie burgers in the freezer. I supplemented these other things with netgrocer.com, but that's a cumbersome and expensive way to operate.

I had heard of Schwans but had just assumed that they would not come here to the middle of nowhere. Imagine my surprise to discover that they have hundreds of customers in my little town. When I think about it, it makes sense. Our grocery store is overpriced and awful both. But I digress. I'm so grateful that I now have a safe and reliable source of food. I don't need to worry about being an extra burden to my friends. I don't need to worry that the winter weather will leave me starving. Schwan's is like the post office.... neither rain nor hail... Tom arrives every other Tuesday and brings me food. Angel adores him and would run away with him if I let her. Tara also hovers around for attention, which she doesn't do with just anybody.
Maybe in an ideal world, it would be better if I had fresh vegetables every day, but this is the next best thing and it takes a huge worry off my shoulders and the shoulders of my friends. They supplement my Schwan's with Soy Silk and bananas and other treasures from time to time, but they don't need to worry about me or feel responsible in any way for my continued survival.

As a major league, hard core agoraphobic, I am so grateful too for the internet which allows me to keep my cats fed and littered. I buy a bulk order every few months and UPS delivers it to my door. And I love Amazon.com. I keep my eye peeled for good bargains. Last month I got myself a year's supply (maybe longer) of garbage bags at a fantastic price. Now I don't have to worry about running out and even though there was a big price up front, ultimately, it's a great savings. Got some cool organic soup that day too as a break from Schwan's. And they had mouthwash cheaper than drugstore.com. The trick with all these places is to watch for sales and buy enough bulk to get free shipping.

So anyway, Schwan's, Amazon.com, internet shopping in general (done carefully), UPS... all these are such a gift for someone like me. They help me be independent and not burden my friends too much. So today I'm grateful for all those things.

And I'm grateful too for the beauties of the new winter season which is coming upon us. I miss the greens of spring and summer and the vibrant colors of autumn, but there is beauty in winter's starkness too.

Gratitude, Day 10

Well, this one may be backdoor INgratitude, but I'm glad I don't have to get up this early every day. I'm really grateful that I'm going to see my friends Paul and Nancy who I know from New York (though they live in Connecticut), but this will be my third day in a row of getting up like a semi normal person and my mind and body have not adjusted to it yet. Tomorrow is Schwan's Day (every other Tuesday) which means another early rising. What's with this sudden onslaught of morning visitors, huh, God? Trying to tell me something?

I actually believe that it's better for to rise early, but from what I understand most people like me who don't go out, tend to stay up late and sleep late. I know in the early days of my incarceration, back in NYC, it was in part a mechanism for keeping myself in. I could pretend to make plans and then get up too late for it to be practical to do them. Whew! Crisis averted. Now it's just the habit of zoning out at the computer and TV that keeps me up until 2 or 3 most nights so that I get up the next day between 9:30 and 10:00. Lucky me, my cats have given up debating me on this schedule. They have been totally baffled by the past three days of getting up with the rest of the world. (Hah! I just heard from Nancy. Like my nephew on Saturday, they are running about an hour and a half late. I coulda slept!)

But back to gratitude. I'm feeling so blessed by my clean house and my new keyboard. I have forgotten SOOOO much and much to my dismay, while I kept a lot of my folk song books, I apparently gave away my Bach which I really wanted to try. I'm doing so badly at the folk songs that it's probably just as well that I don't have the other. But I'm rambling.

One nice thing about having company is that I get to turn the heat up. I'm so afraid of not being able to afford my bills that I've developed the habit of keeping the thermostat at 60 for as much of the day as I can manage. (More gratitude coming here in between whining.) The generous universe has set my house so that in winter on sunny days, the sun shines right onto me at the desk which makes it much easier to keep the thermostat low. Today, alas is not a Sunny day and I don't think company should have to sit in their coats so I'm splurging on 63 degrees. It feels so nice. Another thing I'm grateful for is that my little house came with (according to the inspector) more insulation than he has ever seen. My house has a metal roof and it's so well insulated that I don't hear it when it rains. That's insulation! With my nice new windows, 60 degrees isn't too bad.. and the cool thing is I'm nicely shaded in the summer and the sun and the house stays pretty cool.

So I'm just rambling waiting for my friends to get here. I'm grateful for this place to ramble. Maybe today I can get my brain around the One Single Impression prompt, but I'm not banking on it. Grateful that anybody reads me. Grateful that I have a place to write. Grateful for all the wonderful people in my life. Grateful for Angel and Tara Grace. Grateful for life.

Grateful for how beautiful this year's fall foliage was. Pretty much gone now except for a few spots of color here and there. And of course for my camera and any cute little creature like this little red squirrel who is willing to pose for me.Anyone with a hankering for more can visit my Picassa album.




Have a wonderful day!

Gratitude, Day 9

I'm grateful for so many things, it's hard to choose what to talk about. How cool is that? I'm grateful for television and for my computer.

The computer I use now was a gift from my niece Diana when my last one died of a virus. Diana has been very good to me. All of my sister's children have been very good to me. She made awesome kids, but she was an awesome woman so it's not surprising. Their father probably had something to do with it too. He just celebrated his 80th birthday. Wow.

I have my friends Nate and Dan (how did I manage before Tara Grace introduced us?) to thank for my current TV. I had a 20 year old TV that had developed some quirks after 5 moves. It had to warm up for 30-40 minutes after you turned it on and then the picture was a bit wonky. The guys got me another one from a neighbor who was moving. It's a little younger than mine was and most importantly it works. I REALLY, REALLY want to get myself (even though I can't afford it) a flat screen next year. I'm hoping the prices will go down enough that I can get myself one. If not, I've still got a splendid working television so I'm good either way. But I could put a flat screen up onto my book case which is a much better location and would free up a lot of space in my living room. I have a 20 inch now. I'd probably get myself a 26 inch. I've been working my way down. Originally I was thinking 32, but my place is small and I don't need anything that big really. I may work my way down another notch from 26 to 22. We'll see. I enjoy dreaming. I'm grateful for the capacity to dream. It hasn't come easy to me. For much of my life I thought wanting things was a crime. I'm grateful that I have learned to let myself have desires. It's fun to want things if you don't take it too seriously but just let yourself enjoy the experience. And sometimes - as it did yesterday with my nephew's amazing gift - the universe finds a way to grant your wish. How cool is that?

I'm grateful that I am learning to allow myself to have happiness. In my family, I often got punished for happiness and success. My mother did this out of fear, my brother out of malice or psychosis. Which reminds me that I am grateful for my therapist, Dr. James Mulry. If you live in NYC and need a therapist, you couldn't do better. I may not be your traditional pictuer of mental health since I never leave my house, but if you had met the fractured, shattered mess who wobbled into his office 20 years ago, you would realize what a genius he is. With his help I learned to feel my pain and to experience real happiness. Wow. Ok, I can't leave my house, but I'm alive here inside of it. There is barely enough gratitude in the world to cover what Jim has meant in my life. I'm grateful too for some of the people that pushed me towards seeking help. I'm grateful that if something as hideous as murder and the loss of a sister can have a gift in it. It was in part in putting together the broken pieces of my heart, that I found myself.

Anyway, there is much to be grateful for in each and every day and in each and every event in life, even the most devastating and cruel. I am grateful that some years back I found the mantra, "thank you for everything. I have no complaints whatsoever." I really am. I'm grateful that this is my blog and that I can be as long winded as I want to and I'm sure you are grateful that I'm now done with this essay.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Well, as usual, I'm being long winded.

Gratitude, Day #8: WOW, What a Day!

(Please scroll down for the Saturday Wordzzle Challenge.)

Well, Day 8 of following Linda's example and giving daily gratitude. Today, was an extraordinary day. My nephew, whom I haven't really seen much over the past 10 years came for a visit. He and his girlfriend were on the way to a wedding and stopped by for a couple of hours. It was just so nice to see him and to meet his lady and see how happy they are. He may come back next week for a longer visit, which would be really an abundance of blessings.

Not only did Matt bring me himself and his girlfriend, he gave me an electronic keyboard. I have so missed having a piano and this is a really awesome keyboard. It has been 8 years since I put my fingers to the keys and I'm rusty, but it felt really nice. This is like the Universe reading my prayers (which I guess it does) and actually answering them. How cool is that?

I didn't ask my my Matt and Marishka permission to post their photos so I won't, but here's my new keyboard. Isn't it pretty?


Oh... and thanks to my friends Nate and Mary in particular, my house looks awesomely clean and pretty.

Oh - and also, thanks to and for all the amazing creative people who participate in Wordzzles every weekend.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 38

This is week 38 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works.

Thanks for your patience everyone. Finally posting this at noon. My nephew arrived later than expected to a very clean house (my friends are SO good) we had a WONDERFUL visit. His girlfriend is wonderful and so is he. I wrote my wordzzles very fast and I'm not rereading them so I hope they make sense.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: France, cold weather, backhoe, light and shadow, Humane society, ambivalent, “Happy Birthday, Sarah Jane,” Martians, Thanksgiving Day Parade, green eyes Mini Challenge: she’ll be comin' round the mountain when she comes, pumpkin pie, yellow jacket, short-changed, life after 50

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

Happy Birthday, Sarah Jane, Louisa whispered gazing at the beautiful baby girl in her arms. At this moment, holding her brand new daughter in her arms, she couldn’t believe that she had been so ambivalent about her unexpected pregnancy. She wondered if Sarah Jane would grow up to have George’s green eyes. You look like your father little one. So naughty of you to arrive so early while your father is still in France. He’s so excited about you and he wanted to be here when you arrived, but you have beat the cold weather, which is good and this way next year your father can dress you up as a Martian for Halloween. You’ll love your father. He’s a very funny man. He has actually been planning your first Halloween since you were conceived if you can believe it. He loves Halloween that much. He loves life. You chose such a wonderful father. You’re a lucky girl. Your Daddy works for the Humane Society, but he also sometimes does road work and he can drive a back hoe like nobody’s business. And he loves parades. You will have to learn to love them too and you will probably get dragged to New York at some point to see Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade even though you could watch it all snug and warm at home on TV. He’s that crazy. But he’s sensitive too and he has an artist’s eye. That’s how we met. Admiring light and shadow. Isn’t that strange? And now we have you, sweet girl. And you are so beautiful. I was really scared about being a mother, but I think you’re going to make it easy because now that you’re in my arms I feel more love than fear and you’re so beautiful that I just can’t stop smiling except that I’m kind of tired. Welcome home to life. I love you, Sarah Jane. Happy Birthday.

And here's my mini challenge:

Life after 50 was turning out to be pretty good. She looked at the gathering around the lavish Thanksgiving table and smiled with contentment. Even Francis in his hideous yellow jacket couldn’t take from the beauty of the scene. She might have been short-changed in the realm of blood relatives, but this family of friends was the best anyone could wish for. She smiled at them standing around the piano singing “she’ll be comin round the mountain.” Martha couldn’t carry a tune but she sang with such joy that it didn’t matter. This was as good as a life could get. Anyone want pumpkin pie, she called out and was greeted with a chorus of happy “yeses.”

And the mega challenge:

Sarah Jane thought she might as well be living with Martians for all she had in common with her family. She and her brothers and sisters were as different as light and shadow. She loved France, French cooking, designer clothing. Her brother lived to drive his backhoe and do construction work. Her sister, who God had granted the gift of gorgeous green eyes and a body to die for, had no style and insisted on wearing blue jeans and that hideous yellow jacket everywhere, no matter what the occasion, year round, cold weather or warm. And she worked for the Humane Society of all things. It was so pedestrian and new age of her. Sarah Jane had been short-changed by fate. There the family stood, circled around the piano singing stupid songs like “She’ll be comin round the mountain when she comes,” completely oblivious to her suffering. She had been ambivalent about coming this year, and was feeling unseen and unloved. She could not believe that she would have to endure the stupid Thanksgiving Day Parade tomorrow on top of everything else. But then, just as she was working herself into a full depressive snit, out came her mother, carrying a huge pumpkin pie with a huge birthday candle glowing in its center. Happy Birthday, Sarah Jane, they all called out in unison and as if by magic a huge pile of gifts appeared as if from nowhere. Tears welled up in Sarah Jane’s eyes and she felt her heart bursting with love. They hadn’t forgotten after all. Perhaps her life wasn’t over after all. Perhaps there was life after 50. I love you all so much, she wept, completely forgetting her recent pity party. They had even remembered that her favorite was Pumpkin pie. How blessed could a woman be. It was a happy birthday indeed.

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: snowdrop, palate, boomerang, soft, mushroom, tongue, belt, oblique, fortuitous, lounge

Rich tastes of mushroom and spices and gravy and tender meat rolled across her tongue and boomeranged off her soft palate, caressing her taste buds, but more than that, touching something deeper in her being. This meal had not been casually prepared, nor was it just some fortuitous mix of fine ingredients well prepared. It was a work of art, a work of divine inspiration. She cast an oblique, sidelong glance at Antonio. He seemed such a puffed up buffoon as he lounged idly across the loveseat, his overly simple clothes adorned only by the huge and ornate belt buckle, the little white kitten which he called SnowDrop nestled in his arms. She wanted to detest him - the arrogant fool - yet each bite of this glorious meal dragged her deeper under his spell, and by the time she had sipped the last drop of her coffee, she knew that she would follow him anywhere.

Special thanks to Melli for next week’s 10 word challenge and to Chatty for the mini challenge words.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: palace, hypocrite, canned air, telephone, biscuit, pinball, acorn, customary, fruit juice, waterfall

Mini Challenge: buyer's remorse, lava, haphazard, mildew, soup to nuts

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Gratitude Day #7

Tonight I'm very tired but I'm grateful that my kind friends have been making a great effort to help me clean my house in preparation for a visit from my nephew on Saturday morning. He's very allergic to cats so besides wanting to make the place look a little less like it's just been burglarized than it usually does, I wanted it as free of cat fur as possible for a house with two cats and a disabled owner. It's looking quite spiffy already. We're going to put the finishing touches on tomorrow and hopefully I'll wake up in plenty of time on Saturday morning. They're arriving between 8:00 and 9:00 am!! Yikes.

So anyway, I'm grateful to have some things cleaned up that I couldn't do for myself and some that I finally got motivated to do for myself and that it will be as fur-free as possible for the royal visit on Saturday morning. Life is pretty darned good. It's not quite ready for photos yet, but maybe I'll add some tomorrow. Tonight I'm too pooped.

Oh - special thanks to Mary, who came and helped with Halloween, who spent her afternoon (Thursday) working very hard, and is returning tomorrow to finish up. That's big time generosity.

Late morning post script: It's going to be a very short visit - only an hour or two - they are passing through on the way to someone's wedding. I was able to get hold of something called Mullein Leaf Tea which I highly recommend if you have anyone allergic like this come to visit. I've used it before and people who usually have a very hard time do quite well. With the tea and reiki, I think he'll be ok for the short time he's here. I think the cats - who are already working on messing it up again - actually kind of like having it clean. It gives them a blank canvass to work on.

Dona Nobis Pacem

It's blog blast for peace day, a day created by Mimi at Mimi Writes - when twice each year bloggers all across the internet and all across the world create a cyber prayer for peace.

I think the American public made a prayer for peace on Tuesday when we elected Barack Obama and I'm happy that this time as I blog for peace I feel like our prayers are flowing with the tide rather than against it.... I don't quite like that analogy. Maybe this is better. I have felt for so long like here in my country we were caught in a vortex of darkness, led by a pathetic man who was/is venal and greedy and probably something of a puppet to darker forces of this world. Today as I write this I feel like a great cloud is lifting. I love and admire Mr. Obama. I know he wants to prosecute the war in Afghanistan and that troubles me though perhaps it is a wise goal. War never seems like a good idea to me no matter the cause, but maybe controlled violence in the interest of stopping uncontrolled violence is a necessary evil. I don't know. I know we have a better chance of peace with a man who sees other human beings wherever he looks, who isn't so eager to demonize those he disagrees with that there is no hope for a meeting of the minds. I know we have a better chance of peace when we relate human to human instead of ideology to ideology. It's easier to hate a faceless "them," than a him or her whose eyes you look into, whose pain you see.

I was deeply distressed by the ugliness of the campaign that Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin waged. Glad too, in a way, because I think it may have cost them the election. That makes me happy not just because my guy won, but because it says that some part of our consciousness has awakened to the truth that hate erodes us. My country has been like a blind amnesiac in a mine field for the last 8 years, unsure of who we were and afraid to move in any direction. We allowed ourselves to be guided by voices of deceit that led us not out of, but deeper into danger. Like a character in one of the soap operas I'm sorry to admit I watch, who as rewritten the history of the beautiful amnesiac in his care to suit his own purposes, Bush, Cheney and their commitee of thugs, took advantage of our shock and confusion after 9/11. And we let them. We went against our hearts. We went against our spirit. Like a sleep-walking giant we trampled on a lot of lives in our own nation and abroad.

Now we are waking up. Already, our eyes are seeing light again and our spirits are rising. I know this is melodramatic of me, but I feel like Mother Earth herself has breathed a sigh of relief. And I think maybe there are Angels dancing somewhere. Peace feels possible. All kinds of peace. It seems possible that the poor may have some hope again. It seems possible that those struggling with illness may now have access to treatment without choosing between food and care, or a home and medication. It seems possible that affordable energy that will not take from the earth and will provide employment for many who need work may be with in our grasp. It seems possible that in the greater world people may be willing to sit down and negotiate instead of killing each other. It seems possible that we will begin listening to our better natures and that in so doing we will lead by example and inspire others to do the same.

I have long found it devastating that those in positions of power have used the acts of small numbers of troubled people as an excuse to ravage the lives of others, as an excuse to turn away from peace treaties, as an excuse to justify hate and the thing-if-ication of their fellow humans. I believe that thoughts have power and that we draw to ourselves that which we put our attention to. I try to focus on the positive, on beauty and the light. Being as fallable as I am, it hasn't always been easy when the so-called heart of power in my nation seemed bent on greed and war. Still, something in us - and in the world at large - must have shifted. We have drawn a man of peace into a position of power on the international stage. Our better angels have sung and I have to believe that their voices are only going to get louder in the coming days. I hope so. My new president elect gives me hope. Things like the blog blast for peace give me hope.

I couldn't find a vocal version of this song that pleased me so I went with this one. not quite angels, but...

Please check out the hundreds of other blogs posting for peace.

Dona Nobis Pacem

Here's a sing-along Dona Nobis Pacem for anyone who likes to sing.

One last thing: My gratitude for day #6: Well, I"m grateful for the blog blast for peace and for all the voices in this world that speak for, sing for, write for, pray for and live their lives in a spirit of peace.

P.S. A number of people have commented about the angel on my globe so I thought I'd add her story. She was a gift from a friend of mine on the 20th anniversary of my older sister's murder. Her wings read: "Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy." I wanted to include her as sort of a secret tribute to my sister.

Gratitude Day #5

I decided to join Linda in a month of gratitude posts. I actually start and end my days with gratitude but it's kind of interesting and different to put things in writing.

Well, of course, I'm grateful that Barack Obama is president-elect, that this election is behind us and what feels to me like a more hopeful future lies ahead. I'm grateful that I live in a country where in the course of a very short span of time we could move the culture of our nation from one where we held black people as slaves to electing a black man as president. That is pretty awesome. We are a flawed nation (like all the others), but we are also a great nation. We lost our way for a while but I think we are on the road to not just an economic recovery - that's the least important aspect of the future - but a spiritual recovery. We have reclaimed our integrity.

In a smaller way, I'm grateful that I got one person I know to register for the first time in his life and to vote. I'm grateful that I got to hear the excitement in his voice that he had been part of something amazing and world changing. That was pretty cool.

I'm grateful for the bloggers (I won't list names because I'll forget someone and then I'll feel bad) who participated in discussion and debate over the past months. I'm even grateful for the people who disagreed with me but were willing to converse.

And I'm grateful to friends of mine and strangers who did what I can't do - who worked at the polling places, who campaigned and rang door bells and held gatherings in their homes, who did the leg work that got people interested and excited, who got people registered, who drove those who needed help to the polls.

I'm grateful that I live in a country where we have elections, where we have two parties. I think maybe we need to add some additional competition into that mix but that's a topic for another day.

One last think I'm grateful for. Eloquence. Some effort has been made to diminish Mr. Obama's eloquence as though eloquence is some kind of sham thing. Eloquence like Mr. Obama's, like Abraham Lincoln's, like Martin Luther King's... and like Mr. Obama's are powerful because they are eloquent not from the mouth, but from the heart. The power of Mr. Obama's speeches is not the words alone, but the brilliant mind and the heart that lies behind them. Mr. Obama is a man of peace to and from his core... and I mean peace in it's broadest sense, not just in the sense of ending wars, but in the sense of living from a place of love over hate. To quote him... he is a man who knows how "to disagree without being disagreeable." So I am grateful that he has the eloquence of words to reflect the eloquence of heart. I think he will be a healer for the nation and the world. That's a lot to put on one man's shoulders, but I think he can handle it.

And I've waxed wordy for long enough. You can now be grateful that I'm going to stop writing and post this.

One last thing. Tomorrow is the Blog Blast for Peace where bloggers from all over the world post under the banner of Dona Nobis Pacem. I hope you will all participate. Click on the banner below to find out more.

YIPPEEE!!!!!!!!!!

WE HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT!!!

I believe he will be all that we hope for and that he will surprise even those who opposed him. I feel more hope for the future than I have in a long time and I feel great pride in my country.

Gratitude #1-4

Beside myself with fear and hope
My hair and nerves are frayed
Will good or evil triumph?
Will history be made?
I'm hopeful - oh, so hopeful!
But still there is much dread
I hope for a new president
Decent, brilliant, kind
I'm hoping to feel good again
About this land I love
To know that law and honor
Are not just words but truths
But let me wait to say much more
Until results are in
And hope my nerves can take it
While waiting for results
I know not all agree with me
But I know where MY hope lies
Barack Obama's dignity
His gentle, steady course
Untainted by divisiveness
Or ugly slanders thrown
Is who I want to lead my land
From the pain and shame it's in
I hope he gets elected
And a new day can begin.

Ok. That's not a very good poem. I wrote it really fast and I'm a little freaked out by the whole election thing and I haven't been able to focus much on anything that requires functional brain cell firing, so I've just spent the day playing dumb games and eating. I am feeling a little better now that the Pennsylvania and Ohio results are in, but my brain is still not quite functioning. I don't want it to be even close. It will be what it will be, I guess. But anyway....

Linda, over at These are the Days, mentioned that she's going to try to post something she's grateful for every day in November and I said I'd try to join in... and then promptly did nothing. So, today being the 4th day of the month here are 4 things I'm grateful for and I'll try to post another one or two each day for the rest of the month to keep Linda company.


#1. One of the things I give thanks for almost every day is the abundance of running water available to me. I know some states in the US have more fragile water systems, but my state - (and the US as a whole) - is remarkably lucky. What a blessing to turn on the tap and have water to drink, to take a wonderful hot shower or bath... to have indoor plumbing. Pretty wonderful blessing.



#2. Of course I'm so grateful for my home. It never occurred to me that I'd ever have a house... never occurred to me to even want one... and then out of a series of awful things that happened to me, I wound up with (with the help of my amazing niece Diana and the State of New York) with a HOME OF MY OWN. How cool is that. And it's a sweet little house with kind neighbors.



#3. My nieces and my nephew (and their children and significant others)... and an surprising number of friends both of the flesh and blood and cyber variety. For a person who hasn't set foot out the door for two years, my life is remarkably full of kind and funny and intelligent and generally delightful people from all over the world. And of course my 4-legged family counts in here too. They keep me amused, annoyed, loved and reasonably happy. Going with the 4-legged on pictures here... it's easier and there are only two of them.



#4. My computer and my blog and all the new people and ideas that have come come to me through this medium.

More tomorrow. I'm hoping that tomorrow I can give thanks for the first black president of the United States. If not, I can still be grateful that he came as far as he did. But I won't get ahead of myself. That's it for today.

One Single Impression: Disguise

This week's prompt for One Single Impression was "disguise." For some reason except for the last one, this week's poems are kind of dark. The first three come from the days of my youth. Don't think I have every published any of them before and I probably should have left it that way, but.... for better or worse, I'm going to share them. Guess that's it by way of apologies. Can't help myself.