Summer’s End

Dandelion from Pixabay

September showers

Signal the end of summer 

Rainy grey mornings 

Memories already mist

All the projects left undone 

~ Summer’s lease hath all too short a date ~ *

October beckons

Costumes and candy galore

Dreams dissolve daily

Floating fast into the past 

Replaced by holiday plans 

*William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

~*~

Tanka puente written for the Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge (with alliteration).

Lunchtime Share

My sweet little Inky

Before I jump into Di’s Share Your World questions, I want to acknowledge that it’s Black Cat Appreciation Day. I love my little Inkerbelle! 

1. What was your favorite TV show as a kid?

When very young, I loved Pink Panther, Speed Racer, Roadrunner, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Let’s Make a Deal. Later on, all the game shows became favorites, especially Match Game and Hollywood Squares. As a teenager, my sitcom faves were I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, One Day at a Time, the Brady Bunch, and Eight is Enough. I also enjoyed detective shows like Columbo, Hart to Hart, and McMillan & Wife. I’m sure there are lots more that I am forgetting!

2. Do you have a favorite “tipple” (alcoholic drink or something when you are out for a meal, etc.)?

I love alcoholic drinks, but they don’t love me, and the older I get the worse it is. Fancy cocktails are so much fun. I used to love margaritas, mojitos, mai tais, pina coladas, Irish Coffee with tons of whipped cream, etc. ~ all those sugary, girly drinks, particularly if they came with tiny umbrellas. I went through a Bailey’s Irish Cream phase (that lasted 40 years), an amaretto phase, and a cinnamon whiskey phase. Yum! Now all of that makes me barf. 

Nowadays, I can have a glass (or two) of red wine or champagne, which may or may not give me a migraine, though since I get migraines frequently regardless, I occasionally decide that it’s worth the extra risk. If I remember to drink water afterwards, it often helps me to avoid a headache. That’s it though. No more mixed drinks or sweet liquor for me. Wah.

The vast majority of time, I order iced tea or Diet Coke.

3. Is there a movie you can watch again and again and still enjoy?

Yes, indeed. In fact, this weekend I rewatched both Mamma Mia movies while I worked on my puzzle (ironically, a pic of fancy cocktails ~ see my IG), and I enjoyed them immensely. Somewhat less frequently, I rewatch Walking on Sunshine, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Saturday Night Fever, and other musicals, and romcoms such as You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, 27 Dresses, The Hating Game, etc. And of course Young Frankenstein! I generally do not rewatch serious movies. 

4. Did you have a favorite toy as a child? Or perhaps one you wanted and never got?

I loved my Barbies, but this was back when you had a few dolls and bought outfits and accessories for them. Nowadays, you buy a whole new doll in a themed pack instead of changing their clothes. While I appreciate themes, it was a lot of fun to mix and match outfits and browse the Barbie catalog for new ones. I also loved my Super Spirograph set and spent many hours creating cool designs ~ and redoing them obsessively until they were perfect. I don’t remember if there was anything I wanted and didn’t get, except a sister.

Gratitude: I am grateful that FedEx delivered all my stuff and that I managed to connect the new Spectrum equipment without any glitches (except for my Roku being slower). My daughter asked if you only had to plug it in. WELL YES, but I am extremely talented at messing up the simplest things. She should know that!

Slippery Slope

My mommy and me, 1962

Forty plus years ago my mother said that “a lady” did not leave the house without a full face of makeup, especially lipstick, and her hair curled and styled, whether she was going to work, to religious services, or to any kind of social event.

Back then, my mom loved very feminine pretty dresses, under which she wore an industrial-strength pointy bra, a girdle, stockings, and a half or full slip, depending on the dress.

The slip served two related purposes: first, it prevented the outer garment from being clingy or see-through; and second, it provided a layer of modesty while sipping tea on Grandma’s sofa or standing over a subway grate in NYC. 

Nowadays, some women prefer their skirts to be see-through, and they may wear a bra by itself as a top with no blouse over it or a full slip as a dress.

One thing never changes throughout history, which is women being constantly subjected to criticism for their physical appearance ~ too fat, too thin, dowdy, slutty, mousy, matronly, trashy, not dressing “her age,” wrong color lipstick, overdressed, underdressed, on and on and on.

The saddest thing of all (imo) is that it’s almost always other women doing the judging and making the hurtful comments.

~*~

Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story (slip).

Flashback Friday: Just Beachy

Crystal Cove, CA (my photo)

I'm participating in Fandango's Flashback Friday today with a poem I found on the Wayback Machine. I posted this on my old WP blog on July 17, 2019.

In Other Words, the beach…

I have always lived near the beach:
East Coast, West Coast, Lake Michigan.
I prefer them at sunrise, cold, and empty,
Their stark majesty revealed to me alone,
Waves whispering secrets from the moon.

Tanka Tuesday: Make Mine a Double

Pocket watch on the beach (AI image)

Forgotten moments 

Wash up on the shore of dreams

Blurry memories 

Battered by the changing tides

Unstable as sand castles 

No one knows the truth 

Even photographs can lie

Mona Lisa smiles 

Stories shift with retelling 

The foundation slides away 

~*~

Double tanka written for Tanka Tuesday Challenge #71 hosted by Willow and inspired by a recent death in my family.

Snacks, Shrek, Smoking

Inky waiting for a snack

I’m participating in Kymber’s Get to Know You today, perhaps for the first time, or at least for the first time on this blog. 

1. You see your face on a Wanted poster. What did you do?

Gave my cat her snack 15 minutes late!

2. Which protagonist from a book or movie would make the worst roommate?

Oh gosh, so many! Shrek, the swamp ogre, would be a messy, smelly roommate. It would be hard to sleep at night if Hannibal Lecter lived in my house. I wouldn’t want to be roomies with Norman Bates either!

3. What was cool when you were young but isn’t cool now?

Again, many things. The first thing that pops into mind is smoking cigarettes. Very cool, way back when. I smoked for a couple years in my late teens, off and on. It was cool for littles to laze around on Saturday mornings watching silly cartoons and eating sugary cereal with no scheduled sporting or other events. It was cool for parents to give their kids a little bit of wine on special occasions. It was cool for adults to have an alcoholic drink or two at a business lunch. 

Idk if it was “cool,” but it was fine and normal to ride a bike alone for hours with no way to contact anyone. Parents might leave kids alone in the car with the windows down while they were doing errands. We didn’t always wear seatbelts. Some of us hitchhiked occasionally and picked up hitchhikers too. Being a latchkey kid was common (coming home to an empty house because both parents worked), and I was one of them. 

Now we get to the part where I declare that everything was better back when we had more "freedom" and were untethered to phones. Nah. I don't think everything was better. Smoking certainly wasn't. It wasn't better not to have a cell phone in an emergency. Hitchhiking/ picking up hitchhikers was crazy stupid. I'm just lucky that nothing really bad ever happened to me ~ others weren't as lucky. There were plenty of bad things about life in the 1960s and 1970s... and we won't even talk about the 80s. All that big hair. Gah!

Random Cupcake Post

 

Red velvet cupcake

Since I don't have an FFF to share today, instead I am sharing the first image that I posted to my old WP blog on March 31, 2011. (I found it on the Wayback Machine.) This was a delicious red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting that my coworker bought for me from Morsels Baking Company, which no longer seems to be in business. I think it was possibly a food truck, not sure.

I used to be obsessed with cupcakes, but that seems like such a long time ago now, and I am not excited about them these days. Even before Sprinkles closed all their shops, I had lost interest. Remember how I used to have a cupcake-rating chart that I would update and repost occasionally? 

The dog barks, and the caravan moves on.

Some Thoughts on the A2Z Challenge

Image from Pixabay 

First, whew! That was a lot! Ever since I returned to blogging, I’ve been extremely low key. I don’t pressure myself to post every day now, nor do I jump to respond to prompts. As far as reading, pre-A2Z I followed only a dozen or so blogs (as opposed to hundreds back on WordPress), which was a minimal time commitment. When I blogged like a maniac, I got burnt out from it, plus the reading, and I want to avoid that again. So… April was a bit of a nostalgic trip in more ways than one.

Second, I apologize for slacking off on my visits and comments this last week ~ work got super busy, and I was exhausted. (NB: I am currently enjoying a four-day weekend.) I appreciated all the extra attention: it was great to have a larger group of readers and comments for a while. Visits are already dipping now that A2Z is over, and that’s OK. 

Third, I found some great new (to me) bloggers, and I have added you to my feed. It’s just the Blogspot feed, nothing fancy, but it seems to get the job done. Once in a while, the posts appear out of chronological order, so if I miss a post here or there, sorry. I hope at least some of my new readers will continue to visit and comment here as well as my faithful longtime readers. I always appreciate you guys!

Fourth, it was interesting to focus on old memories. I’m surprised at both how much I remember and also how much I have forgotten. Sometimes a scene or emotion seems clear in my mind, but the year and/or location is blurred. Usually, if a strong emotion is attached to an event, I can remember more of the details. And as a typical oldster, I can often recall a name or a number from the distant past more readily than a more recent one. 

Finally, I created a page for my A2Z links! Check it out if you wish. Please feel free to browse my book page as well ~ the books aren’t free, but they aren’t expensive either. Some of them even received decent reviews. I plan to do a few more pages soon… maybe kitty photos or poetry or favorite links, idk. We shall see!

Zoo (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Scrapbook page of zoo pics*

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we finish with Z for Zoo! Thank you for reading along with my 2026 challenge. 

My parents were always big fans of zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, museums, etc. If there was any kind of exhibit nearby, it was likely that we would visit it. Sadly, my childhood memories of zoos and such are misty to the point of being a complete blur; I know we went, but I do not have old pics or clear recollections of any of it. The one thing I do remember is likely a false memory: I have an image in my mind of visiting a botanical garden with a "snake room," maybe in New York. The snake room was full of plants and little non-venomous serpents that roamed at will. People went in there to observe, but you weren't supposed to touch. This absolutely cannot be right, as no venue would be able to obtain liability insurance for such a thing, so I must have dreamt it.

As a teenager, I was more interested in going to amusement parks with friends than revisiting zoos, but after I had children, zoos were back on the agenda. There are two great zoos within driving distance of Orange County ~ the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. The LA Zoo is pretty "doable" in one day, though of course being old now, I will be extremely tired afterward. I went with friends once, and the jaguar was awake and prowling his exhibit, roaring very loudly as he circled around. He was magnificent! I love seeing the big cats especially tigers (but all of them really), and giraffes, elephants, snakes, and monkeys. Naturally, I adore seeing otters, but those are usually at aquariums not zoos.

The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park requires at least two days to appreciate all the attractions. The zoo properties are enormous, and even if you are super fit, it's hard to see all the critters in a single outing. One of my favorite memories has nothing to do with the animals ~ it's about my eldest daughter. She was around four years old, and she grabbed the hand of a strange daddy because pretty much all the daddies were wearing khaki pants and Hawaiian shirts. The dad uniform! We all had a big laugh. The Safari Park is partly walkable, and for some of it you ride in a tram. I usually favor the park because it has the baby big cats, but last time I did go to the zoo because we wanted to see the giant pandas in their habitat there. Red pandas live at both locations, and I love to see them as well.

There are actually two zoos within Orange County. There's one in Orange, where I went recently with a friend. It's hard to find parking there sometimes, but the whole zoo is easily walkable in one afternoon. Then there's the Santa Ana Zoo, very close to me, where they have lots of monkeys and owls. I should go back one of these days. I also love the Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach, which has loads of birds and otters. Oh, and some fish as well! Last time I went there was a horrendously loud native island drum show indoors, so it ruined the experience for me, but I will definitely go again on a quieter day.

Yeah, I guess this post was a bit of a cheat because it was more about recent memories than long ago ones, but whatever. We're done! Yippee!

*This scrapbook page goes very well with my zoo post because it is actually an A2Z scrapbook, where I created rhymes to go with the photos on each page. 

Yellow (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

 

My mom, my daughters, and me, around 1996

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with Y for Yellow on the penultimate day of the challenge!

When I was little, I didn't like yellow, orange, red, or pink. I loved blues, greens, and purples, in all their various shades. I liked to combine blues with browns, as this reminded me of the earth and sky, the sand and sea. I even had light blue glasses frames for a while. My first serious office job at age 18 required an update to my wardrobe, but I didn't have much cash, so I bought all mix-matched items in blues and browns, with coordinating shoes. Of course, this was February in Chicago, so it was all covered up in a big huge coat, scarf, and boots until Spring. 

Fast-forward to (a) California and (b) motherhood. I discovered leggings... in a rainbow of colors! It was fun to match with my girls sometimes, and also I began a hobby of painting tee shirts. For a while, I thought I could turn it into a business, but it would have been like Lucy's salad dressing, if you know what I mean (supplies costing more than the product price). Luckily, before that happened, I ended up with carpal tunnel syndrome from painting all day because I became a wee bit obsessed. Anyway, it was fun for several months, and we all ended up with a bunch of unique shirts in vivid colors. Even my mom got into the act.

The main takeaway here is that I discovered I loved all the colors, especially lime green, hot pink, and sunflower yellow. I even did my kitchen over in a sunflower theme because they were so cheerful and pretty. As the 1990s came to a close, and I started working at a law office, my daughters convinced me that perhaps it was time to retire the lime green leggings and hot pink tees. (Not to mention all the boots and shoes in kooky colors.) That made sense at the time. I rediscovered blue and brown, added in black and beige, a smidge of cheetah, and that was my admin “uniform.” 

Sometimes I sneak in a pop of yellow or pink to liven things up though. And on weekends, anything goes!

X-ed (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Me, around Y2K, with things I've X-ed*

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with X for X-ed.

X is a funny letter in that it marks the spot, checks the box, and can indicate approval or acceptance, but on the other hand X is also used to say an emphatic no, show disapproval, or denote a former status. We X our fingers for luck. X can represent a cross. X-mas for the holiday. It's a positive and a negative. PerpleXing! But that’s English for ya… 

In this post, I'm using X for something I quit doing. Here are some misty memories of things I have X-ed out, whether voluntarily or otherwise. Around age 5, I had piano lessons and a bit later flute lessons, both abandoned for reasons unknown, maybe moving. I had swimming lessons around age 10, then poof. I was on a bowling team for a while and dumped it. In NJ, I joined a chess club, quickly realized I wasn’t good enough, and skedaddled. In high school, I joined and left the Spanish club and the newspaper (I was the movie reviewer, lol). I did stick with my volunteer position at the creative writing magazine senior year, yay.

I started college at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and dropped out after a semester (finished my degree 10 years later at CSUN). I began a public speaking class in Chicago and bailed after two sessions. Kept taking dead-end jobs and dumping them throughout my 20s. Began taking the exams to become a real estate broker and quit when I realized I would have to deal with people constantly. Ish. Same with substitute teaching. I did finally find the perfect job (for me) and am coming up to 25 years, so there's that. 

Tried marriage a couple times and decided, nah, not my thing. Noped out on the whole dating/ romance world altogether. I already mentioned hobbies I gave up ~ crocheting, novel-writing, scrapbooking, painting, baking, etc. Joined and exited plenty of Meetup groups (and now barely look at Meetup at all). X-ed X and Bluesky. Medium. Substack (still there but don't really participate). WordPress of course and all my old blogs. Started and stopped Facebook a few times (am on now mainly because of a book club). Used to belong to a gym; now I don't. Tried a bunch of prescription meds and lifestyle changes to combat migraines, but most had no effect, so they got X-ed. There are probably a zillion more things I started and X-ed out of that I don't even remember.

One thing I am not quitting early is this 2026 A2Z challenge because there are only two letters left to go!

*The things in this photo I have since eXited from are collecting Beanie Babies (or anything), scrapbooking, getting perms, and wearing contact lenses.

Weddings (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Bouquet from my daughter's wedding

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with W for Weddings.

I didn’t go to weddings (or funerals) when I was little. Our family was small, and these occasions didn’t occur often; the few that did, my parents went by themselves and got a babysitter for me. Though I saw plenty of engagements and weddings on TV and read about them in romance novels, I didn’t daydream about my own. That was a good thing because I never had a fancy engagement party or an elaborate wedding and haven’t regretted it. 

My first marriage came about via an argument. I don’t recall the context, but at some point I expressed doubt about our relationship into the future, and to reassure me (I guess), he suggested we should get married. Not exactly an Instagram moment! Since we didn’t have much money, we decided to go to Vegas, impulsively, the next weekend. That was a lot of fun! I highly recommend it as a way to avoid spending a gazillion dollars and having to deal with obnoxious relatives. I don’t remember what kind of ceremony we had, other than the fact that it was cheap and not Elvis themed ~ I would have liked an Elvis impersonator to officiate, but they had to be reserved in advance. The only sad part is that we didn’t have a real wedding cake.

Well, I guess it was also sad that the marriage didn’t work out. About a year later, we separated, and I moved into my own apartment with the kitties. Since we didn’t have any shared assets or children, it was an easy-peasy divorce, final in six months. During that time I met my second ex-husband to be, and while I was not anxious to get married again so soon, he was older and wanted to commit, so we did. This time, the wedding, though small, was more traditional with a lace dress, religious ceremony, relatives, dinner, etc. But even so we did not have a real wedding cake as the hotel chef  "wasn't a baker," and I couldn't deal with having one transported. They did a baked Alaska for us, which honestly is not a great metaphor with which to begin a marriage, though this one lasted 20 years.

Since then, I've been to more weddings, including both my daughters, which were beautiful and perfect in their own ways, though different from each other. I've also been to some weddings of friends and relatives, each one interesting and special. Most of these included an actual cake. My favorite wedding however is probably the one the girls and I created for their Barbie and Ken dolls back in the ‘90s. It was quite involved and elaborate, and as far as I know, that marriage is still going strong.

Valley (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Me, in Burbank around 1983

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with V for Valley.

When my parents and I moved to Southern California in 1983, we settled in Burbank. We spent a month in a hotel until our place was ready, and that was fun. Though Burbank has often been the butt of jokes, it is (or was) a perfectly nice suburban area, not too far from all the cool things to do around Los Angeles. Burbank is on the southeastern edge of the San Fernando Valley, and so just like that I became a “Valley Girl.” Totally! I liked the townhouse my parents bought, and I loved my little sky blue Renault Alliance, which was their bribe to join them.

Reader, I would have moved without the bribe.

My first priority was to hang out at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, and it did not disappoint. As in the movies, it was loud and bright and full of bitchin' stores with a zillion cute things to buy. I liked to get a slice of pizza and a soda and sit in the food court and people-watch. Eventually, I found all the other malls, but the Galleria was by far the best one.

I had a variety of jobs after we moved and before I returned to college: computer tape librarian at Avery Label in Pasadena, insurance admin at a family owned agency close to home, secretary to a group of weird psychological testers in Los Angeles, and finally assistant to a pension plan designer (also in Burbank). That guy was so mean to me that I decided to quit work and finish my degree at CSUN. (I was lucky in that my dad had always been willing to start paying for my education again.) I ended up getting married and starting a family before I embarked on a career, which is not ideal. But here we are!

These days, I don’t go to the Valley much. My youngest daughter and her children live in LA, which is already a big trek, plus I don’t have a reason to go “over the hill.” The last time I went was several years ago to attend a birthday party at her in-laws house. 

Underdog (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

 

Me in Buffalo, NY, around 1964

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with U for Underdog.

When I was little, I loved TV, cartoons especially. I vaguely remember watching cartoons when we lived in Buffalo; I definitely remember Saturday morning cartoons when we moved to Tarrytown. Even as I grew up, I still loved them: Underdog, Rocky & Bullwinkle (and Boris & Natasha), Yogi Bear (and all his Jellystone Park friends), Tennessee Tuxedo, the Pink Panther, Magilla Gorilla, the Roadrunner (meep! meep!), the Flintstones, etc. As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the Brady Bunch... also the Partridge Family, the Munsters, the Addams Family, a Family Affair, the Courtship of Eddie's Father, and of course I Dream of Jeannie, That Girl, and Bewitched. Together with my mom, I liked to watch Star Trek, Dallas, and "Creature Feature" scary movies. Am I mixing these shows up chronologically? That's how misty memories are... like a pile of photos in a box you pull out randomly.

As a teen, I regularly tuned into Eight is Enough, One Day at a Time, Happy Days, Gilligan's Island, All in the Family and all the spinoffs, and the game shows. I don't think there was any game show I passed up ~ if it was on, I watched it. My favorites were Match Game, Hollywood Squares, Family Feud, the Price is Right, and Let's Make a Deal. Detective shows were high on my list as well: Columbo, Hart to Hart, McMillian and Wife, Magnum P.I., the Rockford Files, etc. Variety shows! Carol Burnett, Sonny & Cher, Tony Orlando & Dawn, Hee-Haw, Laugh-In (which my dad loved too). Love American Style! What a fun show that was. I didn't care much for ongoing dramas at this time; I preferred for a storyline to be complete when the show was over (with a few exceptions).

After we moved to California in 1983, I immediately became addicted to MTV. We didn't have it back in Chicago at that point due to some political shenanigans or whatever (I don't remember why). For hours I would be mesmerized by all the music videos ~ it was the greatest thing ever. Until I got bored and never watched MTV again, but that took a while. Now, in my later 20s/30s, I began to enjoy the dramas. LA Law was one of my favorites. When my girls were little, I didn't watch much TV of my own choosing; I watched the fun/ educational children's shows with them, and my ex and I rented movies for the evening. Then came the Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and of course the greatest show of all time, Breaking Bad.

I've lost my taste for "TV" though, whatever that means these days. Most movies and series are completely boring or stupid, and I can't bear watching them. The few that I love, I rewatch repeatedly, such as the Mamma Mia movies, Walking on Sunshine, the Hating Game, 27 Dresses, You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, Grease, Miss Congeniality, Young Frankenstein, Chicago, etc. Some may argue that the movies on my love-list are stupid, and to that I say... pffft. The heart wants what the heart wants. I would rather read most of the time anyway than stare at some dumb new romcom or mystery miniseries. That said, around the holidays, I like to watch the most sugary, predictable Christmas romances. Why? I don't know. They usually involve baking.

Sorry for not italicizing titles. There are just too many of them here.

Tea (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

 

High tea in 2015

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with T for Tea.

At first, I wondered if this tea pic from 2015 was too recent to count as a "misty memory," but then I remembered I can do whatever I want on my own blog. Also, 2015 was more than a decade ago, yikes. My youngest daughter graduated from UCB that May, and my eldest and I plus a couple good friends from OC attended the ceremony. The next day, my daughter D took me for tea, as a belated birthday/ Mother's Day combo gift. It was my first fancy tea and so lovely. The venue was beautiful, and the dainty sandwiches and scones were all delicious. And there were endless cups of various flavors of tea! This became my new favorite indulgence; since then, I have been to several more teas with local friends, but this one in NorCal will always remain my favorite.

As far as the beverage itself, I have been a fan since my early days. Remember, I used to live in super cold places, so I needed something to warm up. I have never much liked hot chocolate, and when I was very little, I hadn't yet developed a taste for coffee. So, hot tea it was... with milk and sugar. These days, my preference is milk, no sugar, but at work I generally have it plain. Naturally, brewed tea is the tastiest tea, but I'm not so fussy and use teabags for convenience. My favorite flavors of black tea are orange spice, strawberry, almond, vanilla, and coconut. I don't like lemon or Earl Grey. Green tea is OK, but I prefer black or herbal. Every night I have a cup of herbal (also with a splash of milk) ~ I like the mango ginger, apple cinnamon, and chai spice flavors best.

One of my good friends is taking me to an afternoon tea for a birthday present in early May, and I am very much looking forward to it.

Stitchery (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

With Cyndi and a stitchery project, around 1989

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with S for Stitchery.

I have been interested in arts and crafts as far back as I can remember, and it was because of my mom. She was constantly creating something new, whether for decorative or practical purposes. She taught me how to knit and crochet when I was young (though I have forgotten both skills), and I used to make blankets and rugs for my dolls. In seventh grade, girls had to take home economics in school, and one of the projects was to embroider a denim shirt. The teacher showed us how to create the various stitches required, and it was a lot of fun. 

My shirt turned out beautifully, so that encouraged me to continue with needlecraft. I did a few other small projects with embroidery stitches, but what I really loved were the larger picture kits using yarn for the stitches, which was called crewel. I did tons of those! I also did needlepoint pictures and pillows for years. It was a super relaxing hobby and something fun to do while watching TV at night, so I didn't feel totally unproductive. When the girls were little, I made some gorgeous pictures, framed them, and put them on the walls. Unfortunately, framing was hugely expensive: a kit might cost $20 for a 16x20 fabric canvas, but to frame it nicely, with a layered mat in complementary colors, could be $200 (back in the day). Soon, I switched to pillows only.

After I went back to work full-time in 2001 and became interested in writing novels (plus blogging about them and everything else), I lost interest in stitchery. The girls and I began knitting projects one Winter Break, and I did finish a scarf, but it was very plain, done in one stitch with straight edges. A few years ago, I took a crochet class at Michael’s and made the cutest little pumpkin, so of course I went into an obsessive frenzy and bought a ton of yarn and adorable little kits to make more vegetables for a basket. Unfortunately, it turned out that my hands were too achy and my eyes were too tired to deal with such intricate detail, and I ended up giving most of my untouched kits away. I think this hobby and I have parted ways for good.

Risk (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Around age 14

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with R for Risk.

As I mentioned, as the new nerdy girl in town (Cary, IL), I didn't have much luck making friends in eighth grade. My neighborhood friend was a year older and had lost interest in hanging out with me because she wanted high school friends. Understandable. So, when freshman year rolled around, I was alone. The bio teacher asked for a lab volunteer during lunch, and since I had no one to eat lunch with anyway, I raised my hand. 

I found the following story on the Wayback Machine when I was looking for Friday Flashbacks, and since it fits the theme, I'm going to use it today for R.

The Cage Door (originally posted on my old WP blog on June 18, 2012 and edited)

When I was 14 and a freshman in high school, I had Accelerated Biology class right before lunch. The main classroom had a few creatures such as lizards and hamsters, but the more interesting animals were in the lab room. There was a four-foot long boa constrictor. The teacher said he was a bit scared of the boa because it had escaped as a baby and hid for a month until someone found him wrapped around a pipe, and also once it had struck the teacher when he was cleaning out the cage. (Cue the Disco Snakes singing: "Everybody screamed! When I struck the teacher!")

The teacher asked for a lab assistant during lunch and I volunteered.
I thought lab-assisting would be a lot of fun, but mainly it consisted of washing beakers. After a week or so, the teacher realized I could wash beakers without any help, and he quit coming in the lab with me.
One of my jobs was to rinse out the water bowls in the animals' cages and put in fresh water, including the boa’s cage if his head wasn’t near the door.

It seems surreal now that the teacher would have given me this task. Would this happen today? Maybe I’m just imagining that told me to do it. Regardless, I did open the boa’s cage and change his water… when his head wasn’t too close to the door.

What does “too close” mean when you’re 14? Sometimes I touched the snake, when I decided it was safe. He didn’t react.
Later I began leaving the cage door unlatched while I washed the beakers. And then I would leave it slightly open when the snake was oriented opposite the door. Why did I do this? Was I suicidal? I don’t think so. I was being 14 and immortal. And you see… nothing happened.

There are a lot of risks I haven’t taken and wouldn’t take. I’ve never skied. I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle. I'm not going to hang-glide, zip-line, or jump out of an airplane. There are all different kinds of cage doors we are willing to open, and some we never will. It’s pointless to try to find a thread of logic to any of it. Other people engage in behavior that is "too risky," while our own actions make sense because desire precedes rationalization. We open whichever doors we want, and sometimes we close certain ones forever.

Quiche (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

My mom's engagement pic, 1957

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with Q for Quiche.

This post is more about my mother. Unlike me, she liked to try new things, especially foods. Supposedly, one of the reasons my father fell in love with her is because she delighted in all the cuisines available in NYC after 20 years of eating the same old boring small-town Ohio farm food. I forget when she said she moved to New York though ~ somewhere in her early 20s, I guess, when a job opportunity arose. She married my dad in 1957 when she was 26. There was no long, complicated engagement or fancy wedding; they met at work at Nationwide Insurance, dated for two months, and he proposed. My dad's philosophy on dating was very simple: find a pretty girl and ask her to lunch. He didn't understand my problems with dating sites or why my relationships had to contain so much drama. I don't understand it either.

From as far back as I can remember, my mom was jumping into the latest food fad. She made her own bread for a while (delicious) and her own ice cream (meh). Any new kitchen gadget that arrived on the scene found its way into our house. In New Jersey, she created blender desserts made with Jell-O, whipped topping, and canned fruit. Not my favorite. She grew vegetables and made zucchini "boats" ~ huge squash halves stuffed with ground beef, tomato sauce, and cheese. Those were great! Zucchini bread was tasty too. Ceviche. Paella. Granola. Next came the quiches. My dad loved those, so Mom experimented with all sorts of different quiche recipes.

Mom returned to work full-time the year after we moved to Illinois ~ she got a job as a claims adjuster in the same insurance company where my father worked as an underwriting manager. Their jobs were in Chicago though, which was a long commute from our suburb 40 miles away in Cary. Since they got home late, during the week our dinners were often casseroles or crockpot concoctions that she had put together earlier. After a while, I started cooking for us and enjoyed it. For years, I liked to cook until after I became an empty nester. It's no fun cooking for one, not to mention there's just as much prep and cleanup. 

I used to enjoy baking as well, and that lasted until a couple years ago when it seemed as though all my friends were on various diets and not eating eggs or sugar or gluten or whatever. It became too hard to cater to the individual preferences, so I gave up. It made me sad to toss all the leftovers, and I didn't want to eat them all myself either. Occasionally, when I was still dating, some man would bitch about how I didn't cook or bake for him. Why didn't he cook or bake for me? I work full-time too. Eventually, I decided I liked my new lifestyle of Not Cooking, Not Baking, and Not Dating so much that I didn't want to switch back for any reason.

The jury is still out on the Not Writing. (When I say "not writing" I mean novels, not posts or poetry.) I am enjoying this recent burst of blog writing… we’ll see how long it lasts this time!

Pets (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Peppy and me, around 1973

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with P for Pets. 

We adopted Peppy at 8 weeks when we moved to our house in Middletown, New Jersey. She was a cockapoo ~ part cocker spaniel and part poodle. Her coloring was salt and pepper… hence her name. Sadly, she was from a “puppy mill,” but at least she was relatively healthy after a few weeks of meds and care. My mom, despite being a farm girl, did not know how to train a dog nor did we get help with that, so as a result Peppy had some behavioral issues. I loved her bunches, of course.

She had such adorable habits, and one of my favorite memories is when I would come home from dining out with a soft mint in my pocket. Peppy loved those! She knew I would always bring one home for her. She slept in my room, but she preferred the cozy armchair to my bed. Peppy absolutely loved spaghetti and meatballs, so we would give her some whenever we had it, she’d dive right in, and then she needed a bath afterwards. 

Peppy was with us until we moved to Chicago, so she would have been about 8 years old. My mom decided that she should be euthanized because she was “old” and badly behaved. I was horrified! Peppy was a family member as far as I was concerned, and I didn’t care about new furniture or spotless carpeting because I was a teenager and going away to college besides. I told them that I would find a new home for Peppy since they were so heartless. That turned out to be a disaster. Peppy did not adapt to the home I had found, and she bit people, so they kept her outside. We had already moved to the city when I discovered this, and my friend went to pick her up. Peppy ended up at the pound, and it broke my heart. I still feel terrible ~ instead of passing peacefully as my mom would have done for her, she was alone and terrified at the end. The fact that I had good intentions means nothing to me.

Years later, I adopted a stray cat that had been hanging around our office building in Burbank, CA. He was a black and silver kitty, and we named him Henry, for John Henry, the racehorse; my boyfriend at the time was super into horse racing. Henry stayed with us for around a year before succumbing to liver cancer. By that time, we had adopted a second kitty, Tasha, a gold Abyssinian. When Henry passed, we adopted Cyndi, a red Aby. We were dumb and had impulsively bought them from a pet store, which isn’t much better than a puppy mill. Tasha was fine, but Cyndi was chronically sick. She never grew to adult size and stayed around five pounds, though she was cute and not too skinny. She could tolerate only (human) baby food lamb and rice, which Tasha had to eat as well. Cyndi lived about three years.

By this time I had divorced, remarried, and had a baby. I adopted Oscar, a sweet orange kitten who had been picked up at the Burbank studios. He grew to be a very hardy and muscular 18 pounds, but always gentle and sweet. Tasha was sweet too, but super hyper and crazy. She wouldn’t stop escaping, which brought in fleas no matter what we did. My daughter was horribly allergic to flea bites, so I gave Tasha and Oscar away. This also broke my heart, but my baby came first.

She grew out of her allergy, my younger daughter didn't have allergies to animals, and 10 years later Cocoa showed up, waltzed in, and decided she would live with us. It turned out that I really needed a kitty to love, so this was just perfect, and we soon adopted another stray and named her Tiki. (It’s nice for kitties to have a feline friend in the house.) They were both darling, and we all loved them a lot. My ex got custody of Tiki, and she ran away from his new place after a while. Cocoa lived another several years until her arthritis became too hard for her to bear and she quit eating. My daughter and I were with her at the end, when she passed peacefully at the vet’s office via euthanasia.

I took another kitty break after Cocoa, especially because my new boyfriend didn’t like pets (red flag!), and after we broke up in the fall of 2011, my daughter and I adopted Gatsby from the Orange County Humane Society. He was my soulmate kitty and graced me with his cuteness for 13.5 years, until his kidneys failed. I loved him so much. I have a zillion memories of all the funny things he used to do. I even have a little "shrine" set up on my bookcase for him, plus his face in a heart charm necklace. OK, I am a bit extra, yes. Even though pets break my heart when they pass, they also bring so much joy and love into my life. A home isn’t complete without a kitty or doggo, in my view.

Now I have Inky, who is a little doll, black with silver sprinkles, emerald eyes, and the sweetest disposition. I totally adore her!

October (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

At a murder mystery party, 2012

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with O for October.

October has always been one of my favorite months, but I don’t like September or November, so I usually will say summer is my favorite season. September in SoCal is hot, windy, and disgusting for at least the first half, and I am plagued with migraines. November means Thanksgiving, my least favorite holiday, and I felt that way even before the ghosting episode. October has great weather though and all the fun of Halloween. As a kid, I didn’t appreciate Halloween much, probably because I didn’t have many friends, but as an adult, I adore it. I love costumes, candy, and the whole gestalt.

The above pic was taken at an immersive, interactive murder mystery party. This was the second Halloween since my divorce was final, and I had begun to make friends and socialize out of my usual comfort zone. It was a ton of fun. Since then, I’ve made it a point to do at least a little something festive each year in October. The great thing about this holiday is that it carries no burdens of family/ cooking obligations. While I love seeing my family, I don’t enjoy feeling forced to do things a certain way because of tradition or whatever. And I don’t like to cook! I also don’t like feeling bad about my dislike of cooking, as I sometimes do on other holidays. 

Returning to the theme of misty memories… one year when I was around 6, my mom made a clown costume for me, and we went trick or treating. The costume was hot and uncomfortable, and I decided I never wanted to do it again. For many years, it was more fun to stay home, hand out candy, and admire other kids’ clever costumes. Fast forward to age 12 when I actually had a couple friends (Middletown, NJ). They insisted that we should all go trick or treating. I said we were too old, and I didn’t have a costume besides. They said I could improvise as a gypsy. So, I put on a dress with a swishy skirt, a bunch of makeup, and a pile of fake jewelry. It went OK until a man laughed at me and asked if I was supposed to be a streetwalker. Then I had to explain to my friends what that was. Very embarrassing.

October in SoCal usually brings relief from the gross migraine-inducing heat and wind, so that in itself is a reason to feel positively toward the month. This year, Halloween is on a Saturday, so hopefully something super fun will be on the agenda.