Where did I learn this?

There are some lessons that stand out in your memory as the day I learned to -------. But there are lots of other things that you know how to do but you have no idea where you picked up the lesson. I learned early on to never, ever put my hand or arm on my paper when I was writing. I am left handed, need I say more. For years I have given my Mom credit for my ability to quickly clean shrimp. Turns out she never cleaned shrimp, opened oysters but did not clean shrimp. After much thought I think my shrimp cleaning improvements have come from Martha, thank you for suggesting running water to keep my knife clean while I devein the shrimp. Cleaning corn is another mystery. I have never found a way to deliver silkless corn to the table.

I think the corn brush just combs the little silk strands and helps them lay down and hide between the kernels. Sage advice welcome.

Shoes

I have had a long running love affair with shoes. Some women remember great dates or great places, I remember great shoes. Most of the shoes are heels but there are two pairs of flats that are nestled in my memory. The dark blue with green trim Papagallos and the Weegun penny loafers. There was the wonderful blue pair with brown toes and a bow, the red patent leather heels that had a little sparkle, green shoes and blue shoes - wonderful, faithful shoes. My waist might get bigger, hips may spread, diets wars won, lost and battled again, but there waiting for me, always in my size, always a perfect fit are shoes. Everytime I have moved (and there have been many) I cull through the boxes and discard the ones that are no longer in fashion or have seen better days. It is always hard to let them go, but there are limits. So what prompted this confession -



There is a pair of Italian heels in the back seat of my car left there by my daughter after an event. They made me think of all of the shoes that faithfully waited in their boxes for their turn at the dance.

Speechless

My birthday is not always my favorite time. This year left me speechless. Last week I had suggested by hubby that a Nook was my birthday present wish. I even got the brochure and suggested a few covers. Sure enough he said to keep my eye out for parcels addressed to him while he was away. And I did -- lo and behold a smallish box arrives from Barnes & Noble and I put it on top of the mail. The night before my birthday two flatish B&N boxes are on the kitchen table with instructions to open. As I open the larger of the two, he says - now this isn't from me. So with scathing glance I say the usual - so did you give Zed (the yorkie) your credit card? The gift was from from two of my children. And the cover from Bruce was perfect - it was actually what I had really wanted but to be fiscally responsible had suggested a more reasonble cover.

But there were more surprises on the way. Last week my friend Betty had said that we were getting together with friends on Saturday for dinner because of everyone's work schedules. That was great! But Friday after work, no call from my friend to go to the pool or even get together for dinner at her house. Bruce is suggesting just two of us have dinner at a place we frequently go. After putting my sulk away and checking his behavior closely for suspicious comments, I thought oh what the heck let's go where he wants for dinner.

But wait -- there is one more piece to the surprise! Earlier in the week my son texted that he would come over for dinner on Friday on his way home from being out of town. I had told Bruce we would be either eating in or going to a new organic restaurant if Pete came. Then I get a message that maybe it would be lunch on Saturday, the project was running late, etc. This of course freed up Friday to do something else.

To wrap up this story - we arrive at the location and walk into the tiny bar restaurant and it is full. I think now what - and being slightly dense don't even look at who is there until I hear someone call my name. All three couples were there! Bruce had arranged for a table in the dining room - spacious and quiet so we could all talk! It was great and I was truly surprised and honored everyone could adjust schedules to be there at the end of a long work week. Bruce keeps looking at his BBerry and I give him the evil-eye of no texting at the table. And then as the salad is being cleared someone comes in and gives me a hug. I thought it would be someone we know wishing me a happy birthday, but no -- my son had made the drive halfway across the state and arrives for dinner. (This is where I start to sniffle so no more story)

So thank you to everyone who posted on my facebook page, everyone who conspired to keep this a secret, everyone who adjusted schedules and came to celebrate, thank you to Jade for being understanding that Pete would be gone an extra day, thank you to grandsons who called and sang happy birthday. This fills up my 'loved' jar and it will fuel me for a long time.

What is clever quickly becomes obsolete

We were driving up to West Virginia when I noticed a big blue sign letting drivers know to call the State Police for roadside assistance at *SP. It got me thinking about all of the companies and organizations that paid for numbers that spelled out something like "Call 1-888-HOPE" What has changed? My phone doesn't have a regular keyboard with the number/letter keys, neither does my home phone. It takes me some forever to figure out the real number. It was a good idea while it lasted but it is time to move on - just give me the number!

Maybe my next blog will be on the progression from phone boxes along the highway to dial *SP. Anybody besides me remember the phone boxes on the Jersey turnpike?

Timelessness

I never knew what a responsibility it is to start a blog. When I leave it unattended for days on end, my link on my friends blogs report my dereliction with great accuracy. Maybe I am becoming a voyouer, reading everyone elses thoughts but keeping mine to myself. I think it is much more simple - I am speechless.

My life is different now that I am truly between jobs, time seems to disappear in ways it never did when I was busy and focused on work. From my first sip of coffee to finally clearing the counter and going up to take a shower can turn into an hour while I finish the crossword puzzle and maybe even tackle Sudoko. I have a thousand projects that I said I would start and or finish as soon as I had a free minute, but I can't seem to get motivated to do them. Well that's not totally true, I did finally get the drip system installed and the tomatoes and herbs are flourishing. Maybe tomorrow I will write a to-do list in ink.

Grands

Last week I got to visit the grandsons, from youngest to oldest. The oldest is a guitarist in a rock band that has been competing in the local battle of the bands. The middle guy is the family artist and fearless athlete. His skateboard looks like it has been ridden hard and put away wet. Before we arrived, Jason painted a welcome sign on the driveway - it was a great greeting. And both guys tolerated several minutes to Nana questions about the new game they were playing. Very patient and polite gentlemen. Good job Mom!

The baby - well what can you say. At that age they are the center of attention, fun to watch, easily entertained and always ready for something new. I have already started planning the next trip.

Pride

Last week my computer started giving me fits. The wireless connection would not connect, then the wired connection gave up. I was off the grid - at least on my laptop for more than a week. Thank heaven for IPhone. It was truly a pain. I would work on my laptop, transfer files to a thumb drive, hop over to a computer that was working, log on to webmail and then reverse when needed. In the mean time I tried every hint, trick and new drivers that came up on line. No luck. Finally in a fit of frustration I off loaded my data and reformatted the computer.

Now that sounds easy - but in fact it is not. I am still trying to recover some software I downloaded but never have a disc. Anyway, by Tuesday afternoon I was back on the grid. This morning - no internet. At least the wired connection worked. So I go to my trusty Dell site, download another driver and then finally think -- Oh I have a warranty.

After an hour with the tech, it was finally determined that it was hardware failure. New hardware to arrive sometime Monday or Tuesday.

The lesson is that if I wasn't so darn stubborn I would have logged on to Dell when it first when kaput and the problem would have been solved and I would not have gone through reformatting my computer. It would have saved 10 days of aggrevation. I need to remember this - I think there are more applications.