The Twelve Months of Mimi (2008) ~ If I Were A Word I'd Be "Oops"

This year was huge for me. And wide open. Thank you for reading. Thank you for cheering (and sometimes shaking your head too..)
Thank you for accepting "what spills from my pen" and never once asking me to censor. And thank you for allowing me to continue to try out my willow wings. They are stronger for it.

And so am I.

Here are snippets from my life in the year that was 2008 and a few unusual Mimisms along the way. Seeing things in chronological order helped me put the year in perspective.

January 2008 brought death, thievery, peanut butter boy, snow, toy store nonsense and band music:

"My mind is on the sky tonight. And a four-year-old baby boy who doesn't understand why his grandpa isn't ever coming home again."
Serenading The Moon and Clouds Eva Cassidy helps me say goodbye.

"It is hard for me - or anyone else reading the nonstop hugs - to believe that the sad human being we've been focusing on represents the bulk of humanity. He does not....And so I say..... if blog love could catch a thief, he'd be in jail by now. " The robbery at Bloggingham Palace
What A Thief Cannot Steal

The Band Meme exploded into infinity and thanks to Bud the Meme Stealer's stellar stealth work in the blogosphere. We all became a rock band.

Peanut Butter Cowlicks launched Baby Boy into cartoon-colored blogdom on my site.
"I did not know....until today....this hour
this moment
looking into the trusting curve of your face that I'd feel the strangest sensation... that time had stopped - and some sweet something out of paradise had transformed your tiny frame into that of your father's.

And for one peanut butter afternoon - he was here."

"There are ten snowflakes on my hat.

Does that look like a big storm to you?"

Stuck in a tree, waiting to scoop Katie Couric on the storm of the century. I failed. And fell. I can, indeed, smell snow.



The Toy Store Tale
"You're not supposed to answer the phone!!"
"I know that..... "
"Hang up the phone, lady!"
"......but it was ringing and I was here."


February 2008 brought insight on love, blog hackers, dead rats, Super Bowl epiphanies, my Grandmother's skin and another new blog site - Message Bottles:

Happily Cooking A Disaster in 2007: The Year Mimi Wrote
"Courageous writing is mush. I am nothing without my willowness. My work is not a damn thing without it.... And perhaps, this year more than any before, the unmasking of the layers that sprawled serendipitously on the blog page held more promise for real than real ever had. ...I withered. I waned. I willowed. You watched. The moments were loud.
But they were authentic.

What I Know About Love
"If I had to write a book on love it would be of the sea. I like to swim in deep waters.....Sometimes love comes to unravel us. Let it."

To Catch A Blog Thief ~ The Dust Diary Scandal: Pencil Skirt is about to make a full court pounce.

Message In A Bottle Launched!
"You are about to send a virtual Message In a Bottle across the Blog Ocean.
What message would you like to send out to the universe?"


A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Screams:"I'd like to report a deceased rodent on the floor," I sobbed. "And get someone here fast. I really need to come back into this room to do my job. Officer Crumbcake is not equipped to teach opera today. He can't even tell a real scream from a high C!"

Super Bowl Sunday. I'm on it.
"It took me all afternoon to figure out that the coin toss had nothing to do with Ground Hog Day......In baseball (which is round, mind you) if somebody throws the ball and nobody catches it, you are not out, you are not down, you are just out of luck until you find it. Then you pick it up and throw it. The only time it doesn't count is when you catch it FIRST and then drop it. Now THAT'S a fumble.

This is the way the world should work."


The Bath
"She was as untouched by time as anything I'd ever seen.
I added more hot water, soap on the washcloth, tender touch, slow and steady....but not before she saw my tears that fell on her leg in the lilac water where the warmth of my love lay glistening in the crook of a perfectly shaped calf.

She could not have been more beautiful to me that day. Or more vulnerable.
Seventy-four. And my grandmother was beautiful."

March 2008 brought romance, laughter, royal friendships and cloudy airplane rides.

On Easter Vacation in New England
"He took me to his chateau in the hills of the Unknown Parts where he forced me to (gasp!) blog. The rest is totally unbloggable. " My pencil skirt is in hot water.
I met blogging friends Princess Patti and Duchess Linda of Norwich Upon the Thames in Connecticut. It was very special. See the dinner deed (complete with videos) here.

April 2008
a month of emotional peaks and valleys, Baby Boy's steadfast love, firetrucks, trains, ghosts, peace globe launches.

In The Clouds with my thoughts from an airplane seat just before a very bumpy ride.
I had a few questions for God.

"If I were a word I’d be........oops. "

Then the ghosts showed up. Damn ghosts. After a night of dancing with fools, I asked...
"Could it be that once again I stand alone wearing nothing but my mush?
And how, once again – pray tell – did I get here? " Oh damn.
"I don't need to find someone who loves my mush. I need to wholeheartedly love my own mush. " Self-revelation comes knockin'....

A Boy And His Train

"He has the largest blue eyes I've ever seen and sometimes they rest on my face like some starry-eyed fairy full of wonder. He studies every part of my profile with an invisible microscope of love that makes me melt right where I'm standing.
And he cares not that I see."





Firetrucks In Bloggingham

"You mean air conditioning vents are supposed to be dusted? Who knew?! I drove as fast as I illegally could to the drawbridge of the castle and had to pull over twice to let a firetruck and a car with flashing red lights whiz past me to a fire that I knew did not exist. I tried to flag them down but they weren't paying attention. Not even in my skirt and 3 inch heels.

What is wrong with uniformed men in this town? "

May 2008
Reason #1 To Fly A Peace Globe - and the list went on and on and on and on....I wrote Thirty Days Thirty Reasons.
I changed. My God, how I changed this month. With every conflict I researched and wrote about - a little piece of me changed. May 2008 was a month I hunkered down in shit and gore and war and hell. I got my pencil boots dirty. My eyes opened.

My soul hurt.

"But really. Who wanted a girl whose hair weighed more than she did to represent them in the Miss-School-Of-The-Deeply-Deprived-South-USA-Competition? I couldn't do it. There were Daisy Dukes involved" and then a familiar voice of encouragement said,

"Shut up, Mimi. Just sing the Mozart."
Ditz Calls To Ditz - how I became a Queen.
For real.

Memeing The Movement - Join The Revolution And meme it we did.

"Ataraxia, I hear, is deadly., I sincerely hope it's contagious.

"My boots, once fit for a Queen, sank deeper into the miry, disquiet and unholy shit of war. The war I read on my own blog. Why did I start this?
And I'm wondering how I ended up in this jungle without falling on my prissy behind and crying? And how I expected my readers to follow ....without falling on theirs?

Who ever heard of serenity in the midst of war? Bah! Words.
Just words."

It's amazing what truth does to your soul. Even when it's ugly.
And yet, today, I am peaceful. Ataraxic. I have no idea why.

Sitting beside children a half a world away who would love to eat my throw-away morsels

And I have the nerve to be peaceful?
I am not inherently entitled to my soft-shoe world. Nor are you.

But they are entitled to more than I throw away.
An Attack of Ataraxia nailed my purpose to my plate.

And then the vacuum cleaner sang. Nauseatingly in the Key of C.
Too bad we were in the Key of F.

"I tried to ignore it. Really I did.

Until she asked me to raise my feet so she could vacuum underneath the piano bench. Can't you see I'm a bit busy here lady? I'm pedaling as fast as I can. The singers are ssssss-ing their little brazen hearts out and I am trying not to get my pants leg sucked up in the vacuum hose. Can you picture this?"

June 2008
We rocked the peace globes in grand style, the dolls twirled, the dungeon flooded and I learned how much I had changed. That's what researching wars will do.
I had to de-funk.

The Doll Box makes an appearance.

"Open them, Mimi. They hold a secret. Open the box."

I'm writing this story at my usual perch at the table but of course, in my mind's eye I am there, on the porch with my Papa and we are planting pansies and the sun is hot and the leaves are falling and I don't want to leave. We are having such a lovely day. All is right and he has chosen to visit me now. I don't want to break the spell. I don't want to open the box.....but it is there. It is there in front of me, on the table. I picked it up, put my reading glasses on, trying to make out the fine print. I reach for a magnifying glass to help but for some reason, I put it down. I couldn't. I couldn't look. I just couldn't."

But it was time to take them out of the box.

A visit from my grandfather.....

Dona Nobis Pacem ~ A Revolution of Words is finally here.
A Changing Queen In An Upside Down World"Sometimes love whispers and sometimes it screams. But it is always heard."
I just posted peace globe #1467. Brava to the blogosphere.

A visit with my father.....

Supper With Daddy

"All that matters at this moment is my spoon on the side of the bowl, his careful buttering of my mother's pan-fried cornmeal and the wink. Oh the wink. ....

"My father's wrinkled and well-worn mantle has risen at the eleventh hour. I wonder if he knows, as I do, what time it is."

"Sometimes a Queen's gotta do what a Queen's gotta do. Do not try this at home.........
The moment had arrived. I was dressed and ready for action. It was time to descend the stairs and face the muddy music. Lizards or no lizards, somebody had to rescue Baby Jesus, who by this time was lying face down in a pile of water in the bottom of the closet where his manger shouldn't have been in the first place. And it was all my fault! And then it happened.... "






Baby Jesus wasn't the only one naked. If You See A Naked Blog proves the point. "This blog does not fall far from the tree."


How To Unfunk A Queen......a true story and a light bulb moment on men and then wrote a post about my terminal funking. Go figure. Bloggers had to go into blerapy (that's blog + therapy for all you non-blog speakers).....It was just sad.

July 2008

Hard questions, I get my groove back, midlife dating and Homer is one very smart dog.

Ice Cream and Questions......
"Why does God make people and then take 'em back?"

I looked at the innocent face staring up at me by the sink of unwashed toys. And this in the middle of a conversation about ice cream and found rubber balls in the grass? Out of the blue. No warning. Dear Lord, I silently prayed, don't let me mess this up. "


Beatles and Bad Moon Rising

"I got lost in the music and forgot all about what's-his-name."

I kind of miss that feeling.

Throwing Myself In Front Of A Train Is An Option (another midlife dating disaster)










Of Love And Dollar Bills......"The tender feeling of her hands in my own hair as she brushed and twisted.......and how that child grew up with healthy hands to play her great-grandmother's favorite songs.

There was indeed something healing about her touch."

I'm Getting Married!

August 2008
I memed a lot, photographed a lot, talked to myself a lot, wore Jackie O's glasses and revisited a man I loved and lost. John Mayer's "Say What You Need To Say" took on a brand new meaning.

Son Of A Preacher Man, It's On Fire





"What's Your Favorite Drink?... A Saturday 9 meme about drinking. My favorite hobby. NOT. But I tried.
"I thought a flaming cocktail might be nice. "How to pour 5 martinis at once while on fire"... What I've been missing in my life!" .... I love Dr. Pepper. When my date showed me the square bottle I thought it was pretty. And square. Like me. Perfect! What could be better than a sweet almond drink with an Italian name? Sort of like my date....but I digress. .....

Nobody told me that Amaretto is an alcoholic beverage disguised as Dr. Pepper.
It tasted just the same so I drank a lot.

Hence the skinny dipping.

Texas will never be the same."

Justine's Butterfly flew by.......














Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Having A Conversation With Myself


"The story I see in my head is in bed with and married to the paper."

Trying To Look Like Jackie-O

Have you ever heard peacocks laugh? I wish I hadn't.

If You Are A Guy, Do Not Read This Post! (The Purse Meme)
" I can't tell you how many boyfriends I lost simply because they could not put up with my purse swapping. Ready for dinner, dear? Yes, handsome. But wait, I have to switch my purse. Purse swapping is a relationship deal breaker. So now I just carry a versatile all-weather-boyfriend-purse while engaged in boyfriending. Things work out better that way. Until I change my clothes. Sigh."





What I Came To Say
"He was fifty years old and I loved him.
But I hadn't always."

"I asked to be alone with him. I had to let him know what was in my heart. I wanted to see those midnight rides in his eyes. I wanted to tell him what he'd done."








September 2008

Unzipped, uncensored, uninspired, incensed, infuriated and unusually platonic. Men you say? Of course. The wrong ones. At every turn. I hid in the bathroom the entire month of September.

Blogging Where No Man Has Gone Before ~ Queen Unzipped

Me. A dressing room. And a camera. Yes.
I did.
Just hold my purse and take it like a man.

I Do Not Intend To Sleepwalk ~ Remembering 9/11

"A phone call from my son.
He was crying. 'Mom, people are jumping from buildings.'

Maybe I Picked The Wrong Pencil Skirt

"All I needed was a bar stool and a sideways cross-legged pose, my mother's lip plumper to execute my finely tuned pouting-while-flirting look (ala innocent deer in headlights face) and a willing victim partner with a weakness for skirts. Easy, right? Wrong. There was nowhere to sit at the bar."

How am I supposed to wage the power of my pencil skirt if I can't sit down?"??

" They had no business turning me -and my camera - loose in a hardware store." Don't Sweetheart Me is a trip down the electronic tools aisle and a dishwasher salesman who pushed my buttons.
He never knew what hit him.





















Best Friends With Barbie ~ A Saturday 9 Meme

My best friend's name is Barbara. This is a recent pic at her birthday bash at the O'Henry Hotel restaurant. She is still the most beautiful woman - inside and out - that I have ever known.

Counting FlipFlops On The Wall........It was Geriatric Night at The OK Corral
Why do I let her talk me into these things??

But the bathroom walls were just lovely.

October 2008
Baby Boy's bubble bath changed my perspective and a new President-elect changed the world.

Blue Whales and Bubbles

"You don't want them to fight, do you?
If you're not careful, Baby Boy, they'll end up in a war." I could see the wheels turning in his mind ....did I do something wrong, Mimi?....
Staring at me with suds on his face he asked,

"What's a war?"
Oh God. I didn't want to tell him.



No Lollipops??!!

Can you guess what I'm holding in my hand?
The voting booth was not prepared for the Queen's arrival.









November 2008...
Peace Globes and the hope of change.



Watching History As It Happens ~

The lollipop gig paid off.

My candidate, Barack Obama, made his way to the forefront of history. Never in my life had I been as enthralled with and addicted to campaigns, speeches and issues as during the past year. I've watched all of his speeches on YouTube by now and bought several books to learn all I can about him. He is man who believes, and I quote, "The power of words still matter."

Indeed they do.

Dona Nobis Pacem dawned November 6th ....

I wrote Shadow On A Stone: Voices Of Our Time

"What matters are the voices of hope that I will read on this day and the grace that comes with tolerance and respect for one anothers diversity and culture, baggage and blessings - because I have faith that you are the most kind of human beings. Because I know that collectively we are more than a stump speech and a soundbite. Because I know our hearts yearn for peace; in our homes, in our communities, in our world, with each other.

The voices of our time matter too.

If we can do it this day - we can do it everyday."

46 countries and 1467 peace globes later, we are still going strong. We added Japan, Zimbabwe, Switzerland.....

Copper Plates On The Kitchen Floor ....lovingly laid in intricate detail by a family in Prince Edward Island, Canada, who decided to make their Peace Globes project and take it to the beach. Their work inspired and encouraged me. It was amazing!!!! Here's a link to Debra Percival's blog."And yes, I cried when I read this the first time. And the second. Well, maybe the third too (OK OK I confess!) But the thought of a family I never met on a faraway island in another country going to this much trouble to Blog For Peace touched me to the core. I'll admit. I was a sappy sorry mess for a few glorious minutes."

The Maybelline Mirror of Life: Oh Lucky You ~ Introspection strikes again. I can always find it in the bottom of the lipstick tube. Looking in the rearview mirror of life was never clearer.






I'd Like A Sexy Brain To Go, Please

This is where all that introspectin' got me!
Nowhere.
Exactly nowhere.

A chronicle of my dating doldrums. Here's one example of a phone call I wish I'd never made. Read it and weep. "He drove a concrete truck. Part time. Here are the highlights but not nearly the worst part. He used "ain't got no" nine times in the first five minutes while I languished in shock. "I ain't got no wife." I ain't got no children. I ain't got no computer." (big surprise there..) and lastly (the most important part) "I ain't got no divorce yet." "Where's your wife?" I asked. "She's been missing. I ain't seen her in weeks." Maybe someone should check the concrete truck.
Just call me Mimi Dot Dumb.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy saw pirate cake and swords. He was a sight.













"After one week of losing his summer sleep to ride an hour in my car at the crack of dawn - with music blasting all the way - and mingle with very old people volunteers and stir canned creamed corn in a pot for an hour he said, “Why didn't you just send me to REAL jail?! I hate this!” Uh. Just stir, Buster.

Mama's Jail: A Thanksgiving Story

December 2008
A hodgepodge of me in transition - on so many levels.

Cuddling 101: Pay attention.
Cuddling is something you do accidentally (yeah right) in the middle of the night when your feet are cold.
It is not a scheduled activity.
It is what naturally happens after what naturally happens happens naturally.



Baby Boy's In A Plane, Mimi's In a Panic

"When I get in the air," he said, " the cars and the trees and the houses will look like toys. They'll be reeeeaal little."

"Right, Sweetie."

"Will I be little too?"

"No, Baby Boy. You will stay the same size."

Maestro Mimi Strikes Again
She looked at me with an I-wish-I'd-never-met-you glance and continued to pull on the door latch. It was just stuck. "Well," she fumed, "we can't walk into that room in the middle of the piece and take our places in the choir. We'll just have to wait until it's over and pray somebody sings our part. Maybe he won't notice it's not us." "I don't think he's going to forget he cued a missing soprano, Smarty Pants," I said. "We're in deep doo-doo."

Wake up and smell the Karma.

Chicken Soup Is Not A Projectile ~ Ten Reasons I'm Not Going To The Inauguration

3. They want to security me. Oh please. I can barely get my makeup case through security at the airport without causing an international uproar. The Inauguration Of The President: Tickets To The Swearing-In Ceremony website states that there is no check room for prohibited items. This does not please me. I simply cannot enter the grounds without my ruby red sparkly lipstick which, trust me, is "deadly."


The Christmas Meme via Sunday Stealing ~ "I stuff myself in a stocking and call it a day."

"Who's Susan?"  I asked.

"It's me. He insists that my name is not Susie, but Susan. He will not call me Susie."

At this point I am laughing hysterically - we both are on the floor laughing hysterically.
"You spent $82.00 for THIS??"
"I am so relieved this relationship is over," she said.
"Me, too. But whhhhhhyyyy?" I asked.
"Now I don't have to mop my kitchen floor."

Watch Out For Falling Ornaments (A Randomly Stupid Day)

I lost the top of one of Bloggingham's Christmas trees.

How could a person lose the top to a Christmas tree?

Whew! What a year. It was exhausting just re-living it the last couple of days to put this post together. But I'm glad I have the condensed version. When you see it all on one page, it puts it in perspective. Never let it be said, even in abbreviated moments, that I am short-winded. I wouldn't want to lose my Pencil Skirt job, now would I?

I'll return tomorrow with a few closing arguments on the year that was. Thank you for reading - for peace-blogging - for caring about me this year. You are an incredibly kind and supportive group of friends.
I need another nap.

Happy New Year to all!

Copyright © 2008 - 2011 Mimi Lenox. All Rights Reserved.