So, once again I have decided to tackle the exam that has defeated me 3 times prior...the Series 7. What made me decide to take the test again? I have no idea. I was sitting in our staff meeting minding my own business when Anita asked each of us if we had anything to discuss. And, almost as if I was taken outside of my body and watching from above, I witnessed myself say "yes”, blurting out that I thought I would be a more productive member of the staff if I was registered. In the registered capacity I would be able to assist Anita with those tasks that I cannot now perform. What they are exactly I don’t know, but I’m sure there are a whole bunch of things that I can do. Anita is quite bogged down at the moment.
Well, now that the subject was raised I had to elaborate. I asked if it was feasible for me, at the advanced age of 59 and three-quarters, to begin studying and to take the test again. Everyone was in agreement that I should try it and “what would I have to lose”…certainly not my job; that dreaded outcome, if having failed, only applies to those who are in the trainee program to become financial advisors.
Immediately upon returning to our designated places of workship, Anita proceeded to set me up. I’ll be studying all summer. I’m kind of excited about it. I’m getting new books and everything.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Creative Juices
I have had the most non-productive day. I didn’t even go to church today. I just could not get out of the house. I’ve been so burned out from work for so long that I needed this day to wind down. I’ve been on the computer most of the day. I’ve revisited MySpace and Navworks, wrote two short poems on the spot and found a new friend. I did a little laundry, made a pot of coffee and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and proceeded to pop in my Star Trek Voyager DVD (Season 3). Voyager, and all my other Star Trek DVD’s, I consider my thoroughfare to the past. This road brings me back to Lindenhurst on Long Island and into my old house and the cozy TV room where I would sit and watch all my favorite programs in the evening after a hard-days work with my beloved Benji curled up on the floor close by and my husband next to me on the sofa.
These were my younger days when I had more energy. I worked a full time job and still had the energy to be at choir rehearsal on Tuesday evenings and at karate class Thursdays and Saturdays. There were concerts and caroling at Christmas time, karate seminars and bike riding and the occasional girl's night out with my friends. All this I remember so fondly and vividly as if it happened only yesterday.
But I’ve finished revisiting the old days. I’m on my lap top in the dining room now and this is where I will remain until dinner is ready. I don’t have much else to say other than I have to go back to work tomorrow and all the creative juices that I had mustered up this morning, so vibrant and full of life as they were, have faded into nothingness. This is the nothingness I feel every Sunday evening just knowing I have to go through another week in my alternate universe. The place where creativity does not exist..
These were my younger days when I had more energy. I worked a full time job and still had the energy to be at choir rehearsal on Tuesday evenings and at karate class Thursdays and Saturdays. There were concerts and caroling at Christmas time, karate seminars and bike riding and the occasional girl's night out with my friends. All this I remember so fondly and vividly as if it happened only yesterday.
But I’ve finished revisiting the old days. I’m on my lap top in the dining room now and this is where I will remain until dinner is ready. I don’t have much else to say other than I have to go back to work tomorrow and all the creative juices that I had mustered up this morning, so vibrant and full of life as they were, have faded into nothingness. This is the nothingness I feel every Sunday evening just knowing I have to go through another week in my alternate universe. The place where creativity does not exist..
Saturday, March 20, 2010
My IPod
So I've had this great little iPod shuffle in my possession, in it's original packaging—never opened—for 2 years. I never opened it because quite frankly I didn't know how to use it. The iPod was a gift from our branch manager at work. We all received one. I remember seeing the faces of the young people when they opened it...you would have thought they opened a box and found gold. I opened mine and said "wow...this is...great?"
Today I finally learned how to use it. I had to download iTunes first. That was an experience. The problem with me downloading software is that I never know if I'm doing something right or wrong. I finally got it together though and now I have all this great music on my iPod. I have a splendid schuffle of Moviola (John Barry), hors de prix, a film score by DePierre Salvadori (belongs to hubby) and The Last Waltz, and if you don't know about The Last Waltz and the last major concert honoring The Band, then I feel sorry for you. As a matter of fact I'm listening right now to Manchild (Muddy Waters) while I'm posting on my blog, and, as long as we're on the subject, I'd like to recommend the DVD (The Last Waltz).
Anyway, to make an already long and boring story short, I love my new (old) iPod Schuffle.
Today I finally learned how to use it. I had to download iTunes first. That was an experience. The problem with me downloading software is that I never know if I'm doing something right or wrong. I finally got it together though and now I have all this great music on my iPod. I have a splendid schuffle of Moviola (John Barry), hors de prix, a film score by DePierre Salvadori (belongs to hubby) and The Last Waltz, and if you don't know about The Last Waltz and the last major concert honoring The Band, then I feel sorry for you. As a matter of fact I'm listening right now to Manchild (Muddy Waters) while I'm posting on my blog, and, as long as we're on the subject, I'd like to recommend the DVD (The Last Waltz).
Anyway, to make an already long and boring story short, I love my new (old) iPod Schuffle.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Blowing a Gale
March 13, 2010
It’s raining and blowing a gale outside. We were suppose to drive to Mt. Airy today for my mom’s 90th birthday celebration. My sister Eileen and my brother-in-law Gus are there from S. Carolina and my sister, Diane and my brother-in-law Peter and all the kids are going to be there (they live across the street from my mom). Anyway, Diane is making Lasagna. I was so looking forward to this little get-together because it’s not often that my mom has her 3 daughters and sons-in-law in the same room. My goodness there must be winds blowing at 40 mph out there and branches flying across my back lawn. I suppose that trying to drive in this weather and subsequently perishing on I-70 East would make for a lousy birthday present for my mom.
I just put on another pot of coffee and I’m sitting here on my lap top writing. My husband is running around feeding our cats. Polly is very finicky. Each day she has a preference as to what food she’ll eat. Unfortunately, she cannot verbalize this preference, so my husband opens up one can that our other cat Tommie has no problem with, and then finds that Polly won’t eat it. Then he opens another can of the food she didn’t like two days ago and she laps it right up. He’s complaining about the fact that we’re going through cat food like water and it’s starting to cost a lot of money. But he loves his little girls and money is no object.
Last week I told my husband that I thought we should bring Polly to the vet because she’s still too thin and hasn’t been gaining any weight. He thought I was over-reacting, since Polly had just been to the vet less than a month ago and the vet said she was fine. Well, I told him that I didn’t think she was fine and that she needs a blood test to check her thyroid. So he made an appointment and brought her in last Monday. When I got home he told me the vet examined Polly again and that from appearances Polly looked good. Her coat is beautiful. Her eyes are clear. Her ears are good and she didn’t have any lumps or bruises anywhere to speak of. The blood work they could do there at the vet’s office was perfect—no elevated levels of anything. However, the thyroid test had to be sent out to the lab and we’d have to wait for that. I told him “mark my words, there is something going on with that cat.” Sure enough on Wednesday the vet called and Polly has Hyper Thyroid ISM and needs the medication Tapazole, which is the same medication Tommie is on for the same thing. The vet said to him: “tell your wife…good call”. The moral of this story: never second guess the mommy.
It’s raining and blowing a gale outside. We were suppose to drive to Mt. Airy today for my mom’s 90th birthday celebration. My sister Eileen and my brother-in-law Gus are there from S. Carolina and my sister, Diane and my brother-in-law Peter and all the kids are going to be there (they live across the street from my mom). Anyway, Diane is making Lasagna. I was so looking forward to this little get-together because it’s not often that my mom has her 3 daughters and sons-in-law in the same room. My goodness there must be winds blowing at 40 mph out there and branches flying across my back lawn. I suppose that trying to drive in this weather and subsequently perishing on I-70 East would make for a lousy birthday present for my mom.
I just put on another pot of coffee and I’m sitting here on my lap top writing. My husband is running around feeding our cats. Polly is very finicky. Each day she has a preference as to what food she’ll eat. Unfortunately, she cannot verbalize this preference, so my husband opens up one can that our other cat Tommie has no problem with, and then finds that Polly won’t eat it. Then he opens another can of the food she didn’t like two days ago and she laps it right up. He’s complaining about the fact that we’re going through cat food like water and it’s starting to cost a lot of money. But he loves his little girls and money is no object.
Last week I told my husband that I thought we should bring Polly to the vet because she’s still too thin and hasn’t been gaining any weight. He thought I was over-reacting, since Polly had just been to the vet less than a month ago and the vet said she was fine. Well, I told him that I didn’t think she was fine and that she needs a blood test to check her thyroid. So he made an appointment and brought her in last Monday. When I got home he told me the vet examined Polly again and that from appearances Polly looked good. Her coat is beautiful. Her eyes are clear. Her ears are good and she didn’t have any lumps or bruises anywhere to speak of. The blood work they could do there at the vet’s office was perfect—no elevated levels of anything. However, the thyroid test had to be sent out to the lab and we’d have to wait for that. I told him “mark my words, there is something going on with that cat.” Sure enough on Wednesday the vet called and Polly has Hyper Thyroid ISM and needs the medication Tapazole, which is the same medication Tommie is on for the same thing. The vet said to him: “tell your wife…good call”. The moral of this story: never second guess the mommy.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
My Husband's Birthday
Today is my husband’s birthday. I was awake at 5:00 am and got up to put Mrs. Smith’s apple pie in the oven. It was so nice of her to prepare it for me since I don’t do pies. Originally I bought it for tonight’s after dinner dessert. But yesterday he told me that he would rather have it with his morning coffee. It’s a special occasion, so that was fine. It’s his birthday and if that’s what he wants, that’s what he gets.
While the pie was in the oven I got the coffee ready and then I cleaned the litter boxes (he usually does that). I was hoping he’d sleep through all this commotion so I could surprise him with everything being ready and all, but he got up. I gave him a happy b-day kiss and told him to go back to bed. But he didn’t. He proceeded with his morning routine of refreshing Tomasina and Pollyanna’s water dishes (our cats) and getting their breakfast ready.
When the pie was done we had to let it sit for 30 minutes. So we sat and had our 1st cup of coffee and watched the spring is almost here sun come up. We talked about the movie we had seen last night, The Hurt Locker. It’s up for an academy award so he wanted to see it before the Oscar ceremony tonight. The Academy Award ceremony is to my husband what the Super Bowl is to my brother-in-law. He’ll watch it from beginning to end. Now tonight should be interesting since he’s not a big fan of Alec Baldwin, and Alec Baldwin is hosting it with Steve Martin. But, he’ll watch it anyway. As for me I like Alec Baldwin. He went to my high school and as my brother-in-law tells it hung around with his younger brother, Jimmy, way back when. I wouldn't know because I was 6 years older than Alec Baldwin and already graduated high school before he even got there. We all grew up in Massapequa on Long Island.
Anyway, getting back to The Hurt Locker. It was good but depressing. It wasn’t the best war movie I’ve seen, but it did make me think of how insane this war is and wonder why we’re even over there fighting. It would be nice if the folks in the Middle East fought their own battles. I have a gut feeling it’s all about the oil anyway. But who am I to say whether the war is wrong or right. What do I really know about anything. I only have my opinion for what it’s worth, and unless my opinion is educated (in this case politically) and informed (following the news reports) it’s worth squat. What I do know is that our soldiers are heroes and I can’t wait for all of them to come home where it’s safe.
The movie my husband really liked this year was Inglorious Bastards. It is certainly a memorable movie. I liked it but was stunned by it as well. I found it very violent and I’m not a big fan of violent movies. I’m more of a science fiction, fantasy, romantic comedy and old black and white movie person. Anyway, he really liked Inglorious Bastards and has seen it 3 or 4 times already. And I can recall the word masterpiece coming out of his mouth when talking about it. I know he’ll be rooting for it to win best picture.
After our apple pie breakfast we took a nice long walk. Then I went to church and hubby stayed home. It’s 2:36 pm now and in one-half our I have to start dinner. I don’t usually cook, but I’m cooking today because it’s a special birthday dinner. Chow Mien. But before I go and do that I have to finish and post this blog entry. I’m going to try to post one every weekend. After all, why have a blog if you’re not going to spend time in there.
While the pie was in the oven I got the coffee ready and then I cleaned the litter boxes (he usually does that). I was hoping he’d sleep through all this commotion so I could surprise him with everything being ready and all, but he got up. I gave him a happy b-day kiss and told him to go back to bed. But he didn’t. He proceeded with his morning routine of refreshing Tomasina and Pollyanna’s water dishes (our cats) and getting their breakfast ready.
When the pie was done we had to let it sit for 30 minutes. So we sat and had our 1st cup of coffee and watched the spring is almost here sun come up. We talked about the movie we had seen last night, The Hurt Locker. It’s up for an academy award so he wanted to see it before the Oscar ceremony tonight. The Academy Award ceremony is to my husband what the Super Bowl is to my brother-in-law. He’ll watch it from beginning to end. Now tonight should be interesting since he’s not a big fan of Alec Baldwin, and Alec Baldwin is hosting it with Steve Martin. But, he’ll watch it anyway. As for me I like Alec Baldwin. He went to my high school and as my brother-in-law tells it hung around with his younger brother, Jimmy, way back when. I wouldn't know because I was 6 years older than Alec Baldwin and already graduated high school before he even got there. We all grew up in Massapequa on Long Island.
Anyway, getting back to The Hurt Locker. It was good but depressing. It wasn’t the best war movie I’ve seen, but it did make me think of how insane this war is and wonder why we’re even over there fighting. It would be nice if the folks in the Middle East fought their own battles. I have a gut feeling it’s all about the oil anyway. But who am I to say whether the war is wrong or right. What do I really know about anything. I only have my opinion for what it’s worth, and unless my opinion is educated (in this case politically) and informed (following the news reports) it’s worth squat. What I do know is that our soldiers are heroes and I can’t wait for all of them to come home where it’s safe.
The movie my husband really liked this year was Inglorious Bastards. It is certainly a memorable movie. I liked it but was stunned by it as well. I found it very violent and I’m not a big fan of violent movies. I’m more of a science fiction, fantasy, romantic comedy and old black and white movie person. Anyway, he really liked Inglorious Bastards and has seen it 3 or 4 times already. And I can recall the word masterpiece coming out of his mouth when talking about it. I know he’ll be rooting for it to win best picture.
After our apple pie breakfast we took a nice long walk. Then I went to church and hubby stayed home. It’s 2:36 pm now and in one-half our I have to start dinner. I don’t usually cook, but I’m cooking today because it’s a special birthday dinner. Chow Mien. But before I go and do that I have to finish and post this blog entry. I’m going to try to post one every weekend. After all, why have a blog if you’re not going to spend time in there.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
All Little Girls
My mom will be ninety years old soon. Thankfully she still enjoys good health and wits in keeping with her age. She still lives in the house she and my dad bought across the street from my sister and her family. My dad passed away in August of 2009. She misses him terribly. We all do.
Mom enjoys playing cards with my sister and I and her granddaughters, my nieces. We are a loud bunch and always have a good time. There is a grandson, my nephew, but he's always out and about and probably wouldn't be caught dead playing cards with a bunch of women. They are all young adults (my sister's offspring), the youngest being in her first year at Towson University in Maryland. We are very proud of her. But I digress.
Since my nieces would have to be taught how to play poker, we opt for playing UNO, which is not a big favorite of mine, but I put up with it. My mom enjoys any card game as long as she's surrounded by those she loves. But if it's just me and my sister and our husbands, we opt for penny anti poker. That is my game of choice. Anything else would be tiresome as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is for no specific reason, other than to paint a picture of our immediate family life with my mom. I had other things on my mind to say here, but I was distracted because my husband could not find one of our two cats and was searching frantically. We finally found her in my sock drawer and how she got in we'll never know, but I'm back now with no memory of what I wanted to add to this missive.
So my main purpose in this little diatribe is to introduce one of my mother's poems from way-back-when. It is a favorite of mine. She wrote it when I was thirteen years old and when her first granddaughter was born. This niece is the first born offspring of my other sister (I have only two) who has yet to be mentioned here because she and my other brother-in-law have chosen to retire eight hours away from the aforementioned card game.
To My First Little Granddaughter, Kim
A little bit of heaven fell from out the sky one day,
And it landed in my living room, just a smile away.
It nestled on the sofa in a blanket soft as down
And I peeked and saw an angel in a tiny satin gown.
Her cheeks were red as roses, her eyes as blue as the sky,
With a tiny little pug nose and a smile you couldn't buy.
She took the household over and reigned just like a queen,
This tiny little angel, this lovely little dream.
A precious little bundle sent from the sky above
For her mommy and her daddy to cherish and to love.
Then there was this one...another favorite:
All little girls love the same little things,.
The same little bracelets, the same little rings,
The same little puppies and the same little cats,
Stick out slips, pony tales and the same pretty hats.
All little girls have the same little sighs,
The same little twinkle in their cute little eyes,
The same little tempers, the same little schemes,
and the same little angels in their sweet little dreams.
All little girls know the same little things,
How to walk in high heels, how to ride on the swings,
How to cuddle a doll and pretend that's it real,
How to flirt, how to pout, how to giggle and squeal.
All little girls are the same little things,
Enchanting and lovely, like a butterfly's wings,
Charming, delightful, a treasure to hold,
Because God made them all from the same little mold.
Poetry by Lydia Louise Gifford
Copyright 1963-2010
Mom enjoys playing cards with my sister and I and her granddaughters, my nieces. We are a loud bunch and always have a good time. There is a grandson, my nephew, but he's always out and about and probably wouldn't be caught dead playing cards with a bunch of women. They are all young adults (my sister's offspring), the youngest being in her first year at Towson University in Maryland. We are very proud of her. But I digress.
Since my nieces would have to be taught how to play poker, we opt for playing UNO, which is not a big favorite of mine, but I put up with it. My mom enjoys any card game as long as she's surrounded by those she loves. But if it's just me and my sister and our husbands, we opt for penny anti poker. That is my game of choice. Anything else would be tiresome as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is for no specific reason, other than to paint a picture of our immediate family life with my mom. I had other things on my mind to say here, but I was distracted because my husband could not find one of our two cats and was searching frantically. We finally found her in my sock drawer and how she got in we'll never know, but I'm back now with no memory of what I wanted to add to this missive.
So my main purpose in this little diatribe is to introduce one of my mother's poems from way-back-when. It is a favorite of mine. She wrote it when I was thirteen years old and when her first granddaughter was born. This niece is the first born offspring of my other sister (I have only two) who has yet to be mentioned here because she and my other brother-in-law have chosen to retire eight hours away from the aforementioned card game.
To My First Little Granddaughter, Kim
A little bit of heaven fell from out the sky one day,
And it landed in my living room, just a smile away.
It nestled on the sofa in a blanket soft as down
And I peeked and saw an angel in a tiny satin gown.
Her cheeks were red as roses, her eyes as blue as the sky,
With a tiny little pug nose and a smile you couldn't buy.
She took the household over and reigned just like a queen,
This tiny little angel, this lovely little dream.
A precious little bundle sent from the sky above
For her mommy and her daddy to cherish and to love.
Then there was this one...another favorite:
All little girls love the same little things,.
The same little bracelets, the same little rings,
The same little puppies and the same little cats,
Stick out slips, pony tales and the same pretty hats.
All little girls have the same little sighs,
The same little twinkle in their cute little eyes,
The same little tempers, the same little schemes,
and the same little angels in their sweet little dreams.
All little girls know the same little things,
How to walk in high heels, how to ride on the swings,
How to cuddle a doll and pretend that's it real,
How to flirt, how to pout, how to giggle and squeal.
All little girls are the same little things,
Enchanting and lovely, like a butterfly's wings,
Charming, delightful, a treasure to hold,
Because God made them all from the same little mold.
Poetry by Lydia Louise Gifford
Copyright 1963-2010
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