Computer purge = great discoveries

I found these poems on my computer when I was tiding up my documents. I can't remember if I wrote them or if I found them somewhere. This is a humbling confession, but I really love them and I would like to embrace the person who wrote them and, if it is myself, I would be glad. Nevertheless, enjoy:

Boobs and Botox

A monogrammed note card is all I get

For years of enduring your lies

The politics of friendship to which I was so naïve

Can’t a good honest person be president someday

Oblivious to the truth I live

Caught in some parallel universe of pedicures and implants

I value goodness not a good package

Maybe I really am jealous of the life you tell everyone you live

I am really a self-righteous hypocrite

Maybe my most valuable possession is the ablility to be good

And I threw away my niceness with scorn for your bluff.

Reality Show

Subway number 9

You left

And I saw you go but you can not not taste my loneliness

And grief for what I did and did not do

Risen lord only knows when you will come back again

And maybe he will bring you along when he comes again and both of you could judge me at the same time

talking it over like reality contest judges

(Isn’t reality a contest?)

Air my shortcomings for all the world, or at least an audience who could text message, to decide my Final Judgement

Who will remain as your lover

And who will appear next season

I stand, feeling the sucking away sensation as number 9 departs the station

And you with it, indifferent, grasping a loop to stay steady

I will one day stand on another platform

Subjecting myself to Definition by the apathetic, unschooled opinions of another subterranean lot.

The Waste Land

"April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers...."

- The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot

I've always loved this and studying it takes a life time. Even if you don't know of all he alludes to in the poem, it is a long stirring of "memory and desire" - so much like spring time when things forgotten shoot up through the fertile ground. 

Spring is so tricky. It is my spring break and the weather is beautiful except that the temp was in the 30's this morning and it will only be about 60 today. That is not warm for me. Nevertheless I will be out and about buying Easter lilies for the church today with Mary's unwilling help. She is sleeping late, so maybe she will wake up with renewed vigor after our long and arduous shopping trip. I wish we could have accomplished our goal of finding a mother-of-the-groom dress for my mom yesterday. Maybe some of the possibilities will pan out.

Off I go....

Allergies and Humidity

The picture of me shows how my head feels when pine pollen and humidity fills the air.














I am involved in reading New Moon right now. I have been bitten. I did not really want to like it but I do. I don't know what it is about the stories. For older readers, like myself, I guess it evokes memories of first, true, supernatural love. It is also a great, suspenseful read and the text is large enough that I do not have to use my reading glasses!!!

Regrets for not writing

I can't imagine living in the snow. First of all I would fall down a lot. It's stuck to everything and you have to shovel it. Your car slips around in it. It just doesn't seem like much fun. It is pretty but you need sunglasses to look at it. 

I had good intentions of writing about our trip to Chicago. It was a wonderful trip because Jamie and I got to go away without the children. I also got chosen to be patted down at the airport. It was thrilling. I had to take my belt off and I thought my pants were going to fall off and they would get to do a really thorough search. They stayed on; my hips saved me again. I was cleared and I got to fly out of Mobile. I didn't forget and leave a pair of scissors in my purse like when I got to see the President. They took my scissors so I couldn't hurt the President or cut anything while I was waiting for an hour to see him. This is why paper dolls don't sell well anymore. Scissors have become a security threat. I didn't get to sit with Jamie on the flight to Atlanta but I did get to sit with a large Greek man who smelled of spices and garlic. He was charming when we started talking. I did not understand some of the things he said (his accent was sweet) but I understood that he loved Mobile and was heading home to Manhattan. He was the one who told me about the plane that had just crashed into the Hudson. This is how my life works. I get to fly once in a blue moon and it happens on the day of a highly publicized plane crash. It did not bother me. What were the odds that one of my planes would also crash? The birds had done enough for that day. So, anyway, Jamie and I survived the flights and enjoyed each other and kept each other warm in the sub zero weather. Tune in next week and find out why I have flowers in a plastic bag.

The Year in Cakes

'Tis the season for reviewing the old year and welcoming the new. I really get tired of all those tv shows that have the video montages of all the good times, people who have died, top news stories, and Hollywood hook ups and break ups. So this year I decided to review my own photos and videos. 

One thing that really stood out was the fabulous birthday cakes. Ginny had a stellar year in creating over the top memorable birthdays for the children with a few weddings thrown in too. 

Thanks Grandma!

Ok! I feel I have handled Christmas so much better this year. Maybe I am missing something and I will fall into a panic at some point but let's hope not. I don't have a lot of money to spend so I bought something small and fun or useful for everyone. If you don't think it is fun and/or useful then REGIFT!! The gift I am giving to myself is a wee bit of time on the couch with TC. Look how cozy she looks.

Harrison and I finished up our Christmas shopping in Lucedale yesterday (ok I have two more gifts to buy, but I am not stressing) and he even picked out a shirt for his sister. It was really sweet because I think she will actually like it. I came home and put most of the presents in gift bags. With a little extra ribbon on the handles of the bag and some snazzy paper (that I bought after Chirstmas last year, I don't feel like I am cheating anyone on the gift wrap. Why did I drive myself crazy for so many years especially when the kids were so little?

A Day "Off"

Why does the day seem so much shorter when I am not at work?  I really didn't feel well and haven't for two weeks now and I woke up late so I decided to take the DAY OFF! Well, after I got the kids to school, I spent an hour or so at WalMart and got to spend some time with Jamie. I hemmed Harrison some pants because all five pairs of his uniform pants have the knees ripped out.  Wow. What a thrilling day. Ok it was good.  I did not work in the nap that I had planned. 

I sent Harrison to school with 10 dollars to purchase his parents a gift at the Santa shop.  Guess what he came home with! A plastic dinosaur and a spiderman that grows in water. It only takes 3 days to reach full size! I can't wait! We returned to the Santa shop this evening and I gave him some more money to buy me a gift; some nice potholders I think. I stepped outside so my gift would be a surprise. Then we went to the dollar store to buy gifts for the stocking Harrison's class is putting together for Salvation Army. He is gradually learning to think of and to buy for others. I really appreciate this project his teacher has put together. Learning to share is difficult.  I want to give a fabulous gift to everyone but these days it's just not possible. Sometimes sharing simple gifts has to be enough.

I finally got the tree up and it is complete with real candy canes you can pick and eat. 

"A voice cries out:

In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!

Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!" Isaiah 40