Thursday, January 22, 2009

Life

The sun is gone
The Clouds are out
It’s just too sad
To think about

Why should I stay?
But where would I go?
My life is here
I’d miss everyone so

So I’ll just pretend
And No one will see
My smile will hide
The hurt in me

I'm Into Money

Before you go getting all excited for me, I didn’t win the lotto………yet. But I did play and you gotta play to win, right? We’ve had the lotto in Florida for years now and I have taken for granted that picking some numbers on Wednesday or Saturday could make me an instant multi-millionaire. But now, we have Powerball! That’s really big money and I played on Wednesday night but didn’t win. That’s okay, no one else did either so now it’s rolled over and the pot is even bigger so tonight I have another shot at it.

I don’t usually get excited about Lotto but for some reason having a chance to win “Powerball” got me all excited. I have found myself daydreaming about what I’d spend my winnings on.

So far my list goes something like this:

My own bookstore – I’ve always thought it would be neat to have access to that many books.

A commercial Keurig coffeemaker with the waterline plumbed in so I don’t have to fill up the container constantly.

And, maybe a pantry with all my favorite coffees would be nice. I really like the Paul Newman Extra Bold. It’s a Fair Trade coffee so that’s a good thing. The Diedrich French Roast is good too. I like the strong ones but they need to have a rich flavor.

A personal shopper to go out and find clothes and bring them to me to try on; I hate to go clothes shopping and they can bring some shoes, too. I have a really narrow foot and it’s a pain to find shoes.

Travel would be nice. I’d like to spend several months in Europe just seeing everything at a slow pace. And oddly, I’d like to live in Manhattan for about a month or so; long enough to see all the shows that I want to see and to visit all of the museums and restaurants.

Of course, I have to have a house in the historical district in Savannah. I get homesick sometimes and this way I could just go up and stay as long as I want. Oh, I suppose I’ll need a private jet to run up there when I want.

I’d do lots of things for charity of course. I have my special causes that I would give to: Alzheimer’s Research, St. Jude’s Children Hospital, that group of plastic surgeons that donate their time to children born with cleft palates, and definitely I’d give some money to countries that need a fresh water supply and schools for children in countries that don’t have money to provide education.

I’m sure that my family will have some items that they would like so I’ll save money for that.

Oh, I know one more thing. I bet I could talk Bill and Elle Dee into giving up TIBU for the right amount of money or heck; we wouldn’t even need them, would we? We could start our own.

Looking back over my list, I realize that I’m really a simple person to please. Give me a good cup of coffee and some books and I’m pretty happy; I’d just like to see some other happy as well.

Don't Cry

“Don’t cry,” he said, “I can’t bear it if you cry
I know you have to leave, just don’t say good-bye
Let’s walk awhile in the garden, talk of other days
Days when we were happy, in a lovers’ haze"

“You have obligations, I know that is true
But in making others happy, what about you?
Living your life as others expect you to live
How much of yourself are you willing to give?”


“Be brave,” she said, “you know I want to stay”,
He smiles and looks for a soft spot for them to lay.
“My heart is breaking, too, it’s not only you that feels the pain
Oh, my I really have to go now, it’s beginning to rain.”

“I’ll call you soon and we’ll decide what to do”
She called to him as she ran, “remember, I love you.”
In his heart, he knew that there would be no call
She came to say good-bye and she had after all.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Christmas Memories

By now anyone that reads my posts has heard me mention a few times that I love Christmas. I like the sounds, the sights, the smells and the memories that seem to come to me like gifts to be opened every year.

Every year when we put up the tree and I start to unpack the ornaments, I get to experience so many good memories as I take each ornament out of its box. Some people like to have the perfect decorator tree with the color coordinated ornaments to make just the right statement. I, on the other hand, love having each ornament mean something special to me that makes me think of someone or some place every time I look at it.

I have ornaments on the tree that my sons made when they were in school and I cherish them as if they were made of gold. One that I love is an egg angel that my older son made. It’s an egg that he put a small hole in the bottom of and then blew out the egg. Next he drew eyes and a nose and mouth and glued on paper wings. It’s been on our tree for twenty-five years or so. Another I love is a gods eye that the youngest son made. It’s two popsicle sticks with green yarn woven to make the gods eye. Simple but I love it. And the middle son painted a pre-cast figure of a guy with a santa hat leaning against a cactus and it makes me smile every year when I take it out to hang on the tree. (I think he must have made that one when we lived in Texas.) There are others but these are my favorites.

Some of my other treasured ornaments are those that have been given to me by people that I love. One of my daughters-in-law gives me an ornament every year at Thanksgiving and I always look forward to seeing what she picked out. One year my husband and I and all of the kids and grandkids went to Disney in December. They bought us a huge ornament with the year on it and I love it dearly. It’s a replacement for the original one they had gotten us that got broken.

I have quite a few ornaments that have very special meaning to me due to the reason that they were given to us. Several years ago we put up a huge real tree and it was beautiful but we discovered that it had a crooked trunk. I think it was a pain to do but my husband finally got it in the stand and it looked great. We decorated it and were quite happy with the way it looked when we finished.

The next morning I got up as usual about 5:30 and made my way to the kitchen to put the coffee on. As I was walking towards the kitchen, I looked over towards the family room and there lay the tree with broken glass ornaments all around. I was so shocked that I started screaming and practically scared my husband to death. He came running from the bedroom and all I could do was cry and scream that all of my ornaments were broken.

He finally shut me up and started to survey the damage and sure enough most of the glass ornaments were ruined. The egg angel had miraculously survived. The original huge glass Mickey Mouse that the kids had given us was broken as were lots of others that had sentimental value. After cleaning up the mess, we both went to work where I was a complete emotional wreck the entire day. Every time someone asked me about my red and puffy eyes, I would cry again.

That day when I got home from work I found a wonderful surprise. The bar in the kitchen was covered with new ornaments that the two daughters-in-law that knew about the tree had gone out and bought. The two of them had spent a lot of time choosing new ornaments that they knew that I would love. Well of course I cried some more.

So this year and every year since then I take out the ornaments that they chose and I hold them gently and look at them and think about how much it meant to me to come home to find them that day. That memory is very special to me. I hang them on the tree in spots that I know that I will be able to see them all through the holidays. Looking at them makes me feel blessed to be loved and to have the gift of memories to enjoy time and time again.