Because I Have Nothing To Post Today

I went to The Daily Meme. They keep track of all the memes in the whole world. It was not Tuesday so I couldn't do my own meme. Again.
I thought I might be early for Macro Monday but that takes photographic expertise of which I have none. Nada. Not a drop. It was not Wednesday so I couldn't do the wild and wacky Who Do You Love memes.

Thursdays I Thunk for myself so that I don't disturb others with my lapse of synapses. I just take a nap instead.

I checked out Skywatch Friday but scrapped that idea when I realized they were serious photographers. The last time I tried to photograph the sky it was snowing and I swear I thought I saw a snowman wave at me.
The whole thing's a blur.

Food For Thought Friday looked interesting but you had to post food - that you cooked.
That leaves me out. Heck no, it doesn't! I made this croissant just the other day. See?

Food Trip Friday was more my speed. All my food's a trip. But I didn't want to ruin everyone's appetite for the weekend so I couldn't play that one either. Their food is even on Facebook! Pfffft! So are my peace globes. So there. And you don't have to cook 'em.

Then there's Freezer Food Friday. I started to hyperventilate at the thought and quickly closed my browser before it froze too. That was a close one.
Friday Question wanted to know about meeting bloggers in real life. I think I've spilled those beans a time or two. Maybe I should refrain and just stick to well.....beans.
I began to wonder.
Does the whole world cook on Fridays??!

Then I saw yet another called Four Foods on Friday. OK. I'll bite.
I played. The questions were frightening easy.
1. Name two items on your kitchen counter.
an earring and a lamp
2. What’s in your sink now?
the other earring and 2 stainless steel pots. Unclean.
3. What’s on your stove now?
a pan of damaged stuffing and my face in the shiny stainless steel.
I noticed I am missing earrings.
4. What’s in your oven now?
Excuse me!

See how scary that was? I don't think they want me in their club.

But I am nothing if not tenacious. After the third try my croissant and omelette turned out like this. Voila! It is missing the grapes in the picture cause I ate 'em while fuming. It was yummy accompanied by French Vanilla coffee in my bee cup. It was so cold by the time I finished photographing but I didn't care. I had to in case it never happens again.

Then I got creative and decided to stuff the rest of the croissants-I-experimented-on with chicken salad.
They weren't so good for breakfast.

Maybe I should stick to peace globes.

Photography credit Mimi Lenox

Queen's Meme ~ You In the Moonlight with Your Sleepy Eyes

Sometimes it's the song. Sometimes it's the singer. These are songs and experiences I love and always will. It took me forever this week to play my own meme. Someone needs to tell Mimi to lighten up on the memes. Oh, the memories my brain conjured with this meme. I threw out a lot more than I kept. It was hard!

#26 Name That Tune Meme

The Rules : Once you have been tagged (or commanded by the Queen) you are supposed to write down the top 25 SEVEN songs you cannot live without. The ones you can listen to over and over and never get tired of. They don't have to be in any particular order. These are the songs that make you laugh, cry, think of an old friend, whatever the reason. I know it's impossible for many of us to narrow it down to seven. There are just too many songs. Instead, make a list of seven songs that move you personally and tell us why. What memory does the song evoke? What emotion? Where were you when you first heard it? We'd like to know what's in your musical memory bank. Name seven songs and tell us about your emotional connection to the song.
Fair enough?

Here's my list. But it is FAR from conclusive. I doubt it will ever be definitive.

1. Leather and Lace - Fleetwood Mac - 1981
"I have my own life
and I am stronger than you know
but I had this feeling
when you walked into my house
that you wouldn't be walking out the door
lovers forever face to face
My city your mountain
stay with me stay
I need you to love me
I need you today
Give to me your leather
Take from me
my lace"


2. "Do What You Have To Do" ~ McLachlan is McLachlan is McLachlan and there is none like her. She weaves poetry into stars of sound.

What ravages of spirit
conjures this tempestuous rage
Created you a monster
Broken by the rule of love
And fate has led you through it
You do what you have to do

and the infamous "Answer"
At least in my life it was infamous. There is hardly one of her songs that hasn't touched me on some level at some time in my life. Her Mirrorball album (seen above) was my divorce album. It helped me find the courage to start a new life with .....me.

Sometimes she was the soundtrack for two.

Cast me gently
Into morning
For the night has been unkind
Take me to a
Place so holy
That I can wash this from my mind

One cold winter night I chased the moon down a lonely road toward his town about an hour away for date number four. I remember this: He was very tall. It was cold. A deer ran in front of my car. He wore a black leather jacket. Always. I loved his cologne. He loved my skirts. I had a long black coat over boots and leggings and skirts that made him smile. The air was crisp and clean. The chemistry? Tantalizing and strong. No pressure. No worries. Just fun.....that is until Sarah's "Answer" smacked us right dab in the pheromones with a dose of tenderness by the fireplace in his living room. It was lovely and unexpected. I'm learning the best relationships usually are. Winter turned to spring and someone else entered both our lives. It was time to move on.
I wish him nothing but moon-filled joy.
Thank you, Sarah, for turning fireworks into substance. It's nice when you can look back and smile. I think of him when the moon is full and the night is cold. And I still smell the leather.

3. **Poor Gustav. He looks so out of place here**
Mahler's 5th Symphony Adagietto - Why? I had to analyze it for a Music History class in college. That's why. I trudged down to the library dungeon in the basement of the music school and sat with headphones watching the rain pour above me through a small sliver of a window. I was not looking forward to this task. Then I fell in love with Gustav. I fell in love with classical music. I fell in love with classical music because of speckled studious Gustav. I fell in love with the violin modulations that never quite make it and angst from the pen of his genius. I wrote an award-winning paper on the trials of a man in his mid-forties who - at the time he wrote this symphony - was still searching for the love of his life.
I could relate. Thank you, Gustav.
Have you met Stevie? She's very pretty you know....

4. Barbra Streisand's live concert in Central Park 1968 -
I wanted her vibeI wanted her wardrobe
I wanted to be there
I wore that record out

I wonder where that record is.





We build up walls that others can't penetrate. We hold a mirror to everyone but ourselves. This song always reminds me that defenses can easily be melted by the power of love. And really, who would want it any other way?

5. End of the Innocence - Don Henley and/or Bruce Hornsby
Remember when the days were long
Happily ever after fails
and we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
oh but I know a place where we can go
you can lay your head back on the ground
and let your hair fall all around me
Offer up your best defense
But this is the end
the end of the innocence.

I let my hair fall down.
I've never regretted it.


6. Prince - "Purple Rain"

Shocked? I know. Don't say it. Watch him play guitar sometime. Forget about the makeup and theatrics and changes in religion and hype and diva status and Super Bowl presence. Just stop and watch him play. Watch him breathe in the music. Watch him breathe out the sound. He might not go down as one of the all-time best technical guitar players in the world (although I would argue the point) but there is a controlled genius about him that I admire. With a stroke of wild I find fascinating. I know! Who knew?!
He is, even with all the controversy, a consummate musician through and through.
Trust me on that one.



7. Tracy Chapman "Give Me One Reason"
Give me one reason to stay here
and I'll turn right back around
Said I don't wanna leave you lonely
you gotta make me change my mind

No matter what mood I'm in, that song makes me shake off my shoes and feel better. It is sexy. It is bluesy. It is simply happy. And she makes me want to dance.









8. Stevie Nicks
"Landslide"

Well, I've been afraid of changin'
cause I built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older
too

Monday Mimisms ~ Pigtails In a Pine Tree

I was fifteen.

We were way out in the middle of sixty acres of his father's land in the middle of the middle of nowhere. Weedy and snaky roads. Nothing there except a million pine trees, a well with cool spring water, a rusty old tractor, some rose bushes that had seen better days.... and me and Daddy in his 66 Fairlane Ford Sedan.
He refused to drive anything but a Ford. It looked a lot like this except the color was a bit darker blue. (Thank you Wikimedia.org. It's the only one I could find and I have no idea why there is a Siberian Husky in the front seat and I don't know who those people are forgive me please but it is public domain..I digress)

Anyway, his mission that day was to teach me to drive a straight gear with a clutch before I got my learner's permit. These are my verdant memories of that fateful day.
Lots of pine trees, lots of cussing, pigtails and Daddy's big shoes.

I had to sit on a Sears Roebuck catalog just to see over the steering wheel.
He drove waaaaay down this bumpy dirt road out of reach of all civilization ( Daddy was a wise man) and told me that we would begin at the barn and drive back up to the house. OK. Simple. We switched places. "This the clutch. This is the brake. This is the gas." I stopped. I started. I lurched. I slammed. I started. He cussed. A lot. This was harder than playing the foot pedals on the church organ for sure. Finally, the car began to act like it had some sense and moved.
Away we went!
The road was lined with apple trees. Green apple trees with worm holes and pretty colors and speckles and such. I was fascinated with the trees on each side. I was not paying attention to the sharp curve ahead that led into the driveway of the house.

Have you ever made intimate and personal contact with a pine cone?

We're talking branches and branches of sticky needles and scratches all over the windshield, hood and roof of Daddy's Ford. All I heard was "Slow down. Sis, slooooow down. Sis. Sis. Sis! Slow d......."
By the third slow down I was paralyzed by the impatience in his voice and forgot how to slow down. I literally could not remember where the brake was. Brake. Clutch. Clutch. Brake. Eeeny meeny. No clue. He yelled. I panicked.
And then I felt his big big hard shoe on top of my foot slamming on brakes -I gotta tell ya - that hurt!

It wasn't a pretty day, my friends.

"Mimi! What are you DOING???!!
Well, by the time it was all over I was picking pine needles out of my pigtails and Daddy and I were sitting in a shady car.
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
He cussed some more.
"You didn't tell me about the pine tree. I didn't know there was a pine tree. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."


"You mean you couldn't see that pine tree?"
"I saw the pine tree, Daddy. No..I...well....I didn't see it in time."

"Why didn't you put on the brakes? I told you to hit the brakes!"

"I forgot where they were."

"You're not paying a damn bit of attention to what I'm telling you."
He was right. I tugged on my left pigtail like I always did when I was in a world of trouble and turned my face away in embarrassment.

"You hurt my foot!!" I said with tears rolling down my face which only made him feel worse.... and thinking to myself that I would never learn to drive this stupid car. I needed a manual for the manual transmission class.
And I'm sitting on a department store. Typical.

He huffed and puffed and muttered. I got out and we changed places. We left the Pine Tree Motel and he drove home in silence with a sniveling me tugging on my hair looking out the window. Looking anywhere but at him.
Boy, was he mad at me.

Now that he's gone I tend to recall the things that made me happy about our relationship but I also tend to forget the stressful days. I shouldn't.
There were many and they are real too. They are part of our relationship. Tears and yelling in sticky situations are part of our father/daughter evolution.
I didn't want to disappoint him.
I always feared I would.
I sometimes did.

And nothing made him madder than when I cried. He just didn't know what to do with that. His propensity for impatience with me was only equally matched by my tendency to take everything so personally. A cycle we trod many times.

My memories are not all sugary sweet. But they are part of the eventual redemption that took place in his later years which made our love and understanding of each other so much stronger.

I think I would like to do that lesson over.
I wouldn't have cried.

*images Public Domain*

Dr. John Linna ~ A Man of Peace and Friendship

Way back in November 2006 during the very first launch of BlogBlast For Peace (we called it Dona nobis pacem in the blogosphere back then), I received a peace globe from Wisconsin from a pastor named Dr. John Linna. His blog is called Dr. John's Fortress. I was so impressed with his peace post and moved by his writing and thoughts. To receive a globe from a pastor was very special to me. My grandfather would have loved it.

Dr. John Linna passed away this week.
He left a legacy of friendships across the world and a treasure cove of eternal words on his blog. He was a man of faith and humor. It was apparent he had a heart for people. He had a simple and profoundly real trust in his God and was loved and respected by many as a leader, a family man, a pastor, a writer. So many bloggers have written posts in his honor this week and spoke of how much they miss him already.


I would like to repost Dr. John's words from 2006. It is a challenge to those left behind and a testament to the man who wrote it.
My sympathies to his family, his church, his community, his friends - online and off.

I am glad he passed my way.

"The Peace Of God"
by Dr. John Linna

"Saying for the day: May God's Peace fill your life.
There are two roads to peace.

One road requires that we human beings put aside our differences, our old hatreds, our desire to force everybody to be like us, our greed, and all the other things that divide us.
Then we work for the good of all human beings.
At the end of that road there is no starvation, no poverty.
There is health care for everybody.
There is no killing and no war.
There is harmony and real peace.
That’s one road.

The other road is a road of revenge, getting even, and making things right.
On this road people either agree or we kill them.
Some of the people on this road will have most of the good things.
People will starve.
Sickness will run rampant.
There will be war after war.
Finally there will be peace.
It will be the peace of the graveyard.
There will be no humans to ruin the peace.

Which road will we humans go down?"


Please take the time to pay your condolences to his family and leave a word for them at this online guestbook. It was created by his close friend Thom, who lives in Hawaii and writes Thom's Place For Whatever. He did a beautiful job with it.

Photography credit: Mimi Lenox

Do not adjust your set. This is not a blog post.

I should be writing a blog post right now. But I promised myself I'd get to bed at a decent hour this week. I've failed twice already and it's only Thursday! My professional and personal life has taken a turn for the mega busy of late. And that's a good thing. There just aren't enough hours in the day to dance all the dances.

My brain is too tired to be funny or clever or philosophical or pencil skirty (well, I'm never too tired for that) so really, I should just not write a blog post about not writing a blog post and call it a day. Trouble is, when I start writing I can't stop the jibber jabber on the page. It's a curse!

Same off the page. I walk around like an Italian mafia wife flinging my hands and gesturing high and low like I'm conducting myself. I really should hire someone to kiss me and shut me up occasionally. That's such a lovely way to be muzzled. Where IS that parking lot kisser when I need him?

Bedtime.
Cause a Queen should not walk around with dark circles under her eyes and droopy eyelids and .....things.
Yesterday I was so tired that I fell asleep (I.kid.you.not) in the chair while getting my hair trimmed. I woke up with layered curls and mousse dripping on my handbag before I could say forty winks, which I sorely need right now cause I am a walking poster child for allergic-to-morning.com.

Everybody at work knows not to speak to me before 8:30 am but still.....I need to represent my crown a bit better than I've been doing.
A girl could stumble on a kisser if she's watching her curls and beauty sleep ya know.

So, if you don't mind I won't write one solitary word on this page tonight. I mean, really! Why should I? It's juuuusst a bloooogggg. Right?

I know how to put the pens down.

Goodnight, my bloggy people.

Photography credit: Mimi Lenox

Dances Behind a Red Red Door

Way down this road and round that curve...

in the distance you can see
the soft blue dot
of Bloggingham's half-baked mountain
It took me a while to get there from here.
Along tree-lined two-lane paths
full of the deadness of branches
twigs exposed
shallow
winter's song
winter's scourge
I remember those I knew
and those I never knew
and those I thought I knew

Past the icy bridge I took way too fast...

past the old abandoned mill

where I should be paying attention to the concrete curve and not the golden whirling water

I make my way toward the soft blue dot
and wonder how I got here
how I left here
how I came back here
and why I keep coming back here
why I am
here

past a blue blue sky
full of brittle leaves and fences

and looming barns who watch my comings and goings
on the roads I've made quite nicely my own
I climb through the memory of all my walks toward home
and all my wades through water
and all my dances

behind a red red door


Photography: Mimi Lenox

Monday Mimisms ~ I Have a Dungeon and I Know How To Use It

Just because I have a meme site of my own now doesn't mean I've given up on memeing here all together. After all, my name is mmmmeeeeeemi. Sort of. I didn't plan it that way. It just sort of happened. Isn't that the way life goes? What happened to the good ole' days when I stood on my pointy crown and issued an edict from the rooftops of Bloggingham Palace. It was heard far and wide across oceans and valleys and blills in the blogosphere. Every blogger within the sound of my voice hurried to smack me answer questions wrought forth (I always wanted to say wrought forth. It makes no sense but it was fun to say) anyway....yeah...scary questions from moi-who-has-a dungeon are long overdue much like my library books but I digress.

Now I know you've all heard about this dungeon of mine. Some have even seen it and lived to tell. But that's not the point. I know how to bury those bodies. And don't think you can hide behind that get-out-of-the-dungeon-free card I issued way back when I didn't have any sense one day and get out of this meme. I'm talking to you, Dawn! And you...and you....and even you!


So bear with me while I think of a mean mean meme and do it right here on the page. The chicken's way would be to say "I tag everyone". Bah! You think that's a serious memer?! Ha! I'm taking names and kicking blass (that's blog + a** for all you non-blog speakers) I can't believe I said that. You will most likely find your name at the end of this post marked TAGGED.
Read it and weep.
Or else.
The UnValentine Grumpy Meme

1. I, Mimi Pencil Skirt Peace Woman, have officially declared war on Valentine's Day. If I see one more chocolate rose covered in stupid red tin foil paper I'm gonna have a fit. What did you get for Valentine's Day?

A chocolate rose covered in stupid red tin foil paper. I was not amused.

2. What will you miss most about Valentine's Day?
The almost-love-of-my-life. Cue violins.

3. What could you have done differently yesterday to make the day sweeter?

I could have graciously accepted the well-intended tin foil chocolate without the remark that cost me my boyfriend. We'd only met 24 hrs earlier, so really, maybe I should cut him some slack.


4. How many roses make a dozen?
Men need to understand this. Women want flowers. Flowers that smell. Flowers you can water. Flowers that come from a florist. Flowers that can be delivered to our door or workplace with much ado and fanfare. Flowers you can show off to your ex-boyfriends. Flowers to make your girlfriends jealous. Flowers that say "I care enough to spend take out a 2nd mortgage for this bundle of love, my love." We do not want to eat tin foil.


5. You and your love are getting matching tattoos for Valentine's Day. What will they be?
Mine will be a puppy. His will be a doghouse.

6. My kingdom for a man who can spell. I am so tired of getting text messages from college educated 45 yr old men like .....I miss u ....wat up?.... B there by 8... or the ever popular U home? Does your significant other have an annoying cute little habit you'd like to break?
Nope. I just change my number. The phone company now answers my calls with

"What did he do this time?"

7. What did you get someone for Valentine's Day?He asked for a red teddy.
That is exactly what he got. He needs to be more specific next time.
So far, we are two very unamused people.










8. No one is looking. I promise.
Write one word on this candy heart you've been dying to say to a romantic connection from your past. I will not tell.
My answer? That IS my answer. I know not what to say.


9. Be a poet. Write a 4-line poem starting with Roses are red....

Roses are red
Stuffed in a vase
But mine are melting
all over my face!!
(don't stop me I'm on a roll)
If you should die
before I wake
I promise to cry
but it will be fake


10. What song best describes your Valentine's Day experience this year?by The Dungeons

11. I, Mimi Grumpy Skirt, am so glad this meme is almost over. This is my final question. I made it eleven questions in honor of the 11 roses I didn't receive. Aren't they lovely? This is my final final question, Regis:
Two cupids are in a knock down drag out fight on the floor of the Senate. One is a constituent from Venus, the other from Mars.
What is the name of the legislation they are fighting over?

Same Cherub marriage of course.



P.S. The chocolate was messy
The sentiment real
I promise to forgive him
If this meme you steal.
So take this tag
and away you go
You won't be thrown into
the dungeon below!
**This will be the Queen's Meme for Tuesday as well**
Now for the fun part.... Oh ye little Dungeon Dodgers you. I, Mimi Queen of Memes, do royally tag Ferd, Vodka Mom, Summer, Lizza, Starr, Jean-Luc, Linda, Bond, Ciara, Tulip, Eric, Bee, Travis, Melissa, Eyre, Lee, Bobby, Anndi, Mo, Desert, Shannon, Cogitator, Katherine, Ciara, Lois, Jamie, Kitten, Gal, Gary, Mielikki, Charles, Dawn, Cat, Jennifer, Brigit, Melissa, Angelia, Maria, Kwizgiver, Coopernicus, BPD, Allie, Lime, Dixie, Pink Lady, Nessa, Akelamalu, Stef,
Mouse, Sandy, Mommy Cara, Wendy,
Xmichra, Debbie, 800 FB friends and a partridge in a pear tree.


Can someone say St. Patrick's Day? They don't make green tin foil roses do they.....

All these things shall love do unto you

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather,
"I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love,
if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

~Kahlil Gibran~








Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese artist, philosopher and writer
Claude Monet (1840-1926) public domain
with a thank you to a special friend for reminding me of this poem