Happy New Year! Twenty -Five Years of Blogging and Friendship

 I am thankful to be alive and relatively healthy, still here, wanting to do many many more things in my life! Being single at this stage of life is the best! And the worst.....Sometimes I think I'd enjoy the company of a man on a regular basis, then I remember cooking obligatory dinners (when I'd much rather cook together), checking with someone else before I make a decision (like I would), coordinating family plans and events with extended families...nd a million other small add-on stressors that you gloss over when you  live with someone else.
 But if I fall in loveI shall reconsider(wink)
After being happily alone for more than twenty years, I've realized how blessed I am in the Late Fall of my life. I retired from teaching six years ago. I love a life without alarm clocks, bells and cafeteria food.I enjoy my own company, but I do get lonely from time to time. 

From 2008 "The Christmas Meme" 

I love spending time with my kids and grandchildren, ages 20, 13 and 5 - college, middle school and kindergarten. Never a dull moment at the dinner table. 

Baby Boy is majoring in Computer Science, Beans is majoring in girls and BabyBree is majoring in Barbie. Perfect! They teach me about video games and I sneak in a peace globe conversation from time to time. I want them on that rain ya see......
Which season are you in?Which season have you enjoyed the most?
I've noticed, also, that people from my past keeping showing up.  I'm stumbling over them in the grocery store and thrift store. Long lost relatives with news to tell, high school friends, friends of friends and acquaintances that should have been more than that; maybe we'll get a do-over. Who knows?  Is it truly a coincidence? Or does the Universe have a rhyme and reason?That's to be determined. I'll keep you posted.Has this phenomenon ever happened to you?

                                                         Out on the river in 2018 with my Beans

As for you and I....I'm glad you're still here in Blogworld.I'm happy we met in the BlogoVerse in 2005when learning to decorate a blog with colored fonts and photos from PhotoBucket and ImageChef was as high-tech as we could go. But we helped each other through it and some of us even learned to code from scratch. Technorati was everything and memes rocked our world. ReMEMEber?
I wish you the best of health and true happiness in our twentieth year of friendship. I think I know most of you well. I've met several of you in the real world. A pleasure! Let's keep in touch. 
Tell me about your season.How's your life going?

2006 Blogging Meltdown at the computer
                   
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Monday Mimisms ~ Hemlines and Shoulders

The plan: Band playing. Outdoor music and festival food. Scores of antiques. Hotdogs. A raffle. Socialization. And oh yes....there was rain. Lots of rain.The much anticipated event cancelled by a thundercloud. Spring.Fling.Interrupted
The dress would have to wait.

If you can imagine an off-the-shoulder look....

As luck (unluck) would have it and in perfect (imperfect) timing, Beans came down with some sort of virus (not Covid) and a high fever, so...I couldn't have gone anyway. When I picked him up from school on Friday his fever was 102 degrees. He had to hunker down with me for the weekend in lieu of spreading it to #theheartpatient at his house. A quick wardrobe switch from that new-dress-floozy-feeling to a nurse cap and thermometer bag and I was good to go. Those quick wardrobe changes in opera workshop classes back in the day really pay off from time to time. Poor little guy has been so sick. I'm masking up and staying as clear away from him as I can, spraying Lysol, singing German Lieder to make him fall asleep 

and eyeing that cute little dress hanging in the hallway just begging to be accessorized.
I've decided to wear the dangling Cherokee feather earrings and strappy floppy Clark sandals with a gold petaled fleur atop for comfort and attention. Yes, I said attention. I need some attention. The kind that a new dress can bring. Because it's not really about the way you look in it or how others see you in it...it's about how it makes you feel. 
And right now I'm feeling pretty darn lucky that I get to spoil this little person who loves and depends on his Mimi AND pretty excited and looking forward to the next sunny weekend full of spring festivals and funsans thunderstorms and flu
That dress makes me happyBodaciously clashing with the wallpaperThe hemline hangs short in the front longer in the backsymmetrically askewand that's why I laughedwhen the mirror said "It's you!"

Gute Nacht



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Monday Mimisms ~ Who Would Ghost a Queen?

So THAT's where you're
hiding the candy..

Why am I explaining? Questioning?
Again. My newest non-resolution. Stop explaining. Just be.
My days are nuttier than usual. Busier than usual. Mostly I'm spinning this one around in a chair 'til she's "Bizzy!" as only a three-year-old can hilariously proclaim, gently fighting with Beans (age 11) about the battles he's "not" fighting in video games when I walk around the corner and hear him declare "victory" over his enemies. Can't he just learn to meditate?

Learning to "watch" 
in the doctor's office. Fun times.

Or relentlessly checking the "watched" spot on my back. Watch it? I can't SEE it! So, I've decided not to "watch" it. I told Dr.Derm that SHE should be the one watching, not me. I will drive myself and the whole Blogosphere crazy if I watch.

You see it, right?

Maybe I should take a picture of it backwards in the mirror and let YOU watch it. Oh, I crack myself up.All I know is that when I go back in March to see if all this "watching" has produced any crazy results, I shall declare ('cause I'm a Queen) that I'm done with  the eye and body contortion routine. Just take it off. Please. Now. "These take yeeeeaaarrrsss to develop into a problem," she said, "Don't worry."Then. Why. Are. We. Watching???

Bree "watching" flower roots

She knows how to get to the bottom of things.

Which brings me to my latest sad and silly malady.

I've been ghosted. Ghosted! Me??!

Who would ghost a Queen?

It started out so lovely. Five-hour phone conversations. Morning texts. Goodnight emails. Mutual commonalities and laughter. Then New Year's happened...er....or didn't happen. And I realized that the more I talked to him about my own personal goals and aspirations the less interested he seemed to be in understanding that independent streak in moi. He could have just said what I suspected...that he wanted to be joined at the hip. I can't even FIND my hips.

 Instead. Ghosted.  

I'm going to talk to Baby Boy. Since he's eighteen now soon-to-be majoring in Computer Science, he should know the ways and whys of intraweb romance. Or not.All I know is that he never had any trouble with dating in Kindergarten. Wait...there was that Tiffany girl.....and Amy...oh, and Susie (!) who popped him in the head with a paper airplane. Maybe I'd better not ask Baby Boy.


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Monday Mimisms ~ Snippets of Life

There are so many people in my house right now that sometimes I feel the need to go sit in my car for privacy.  Has this ever happened to you?  I pray to the God of Real Estate every day! Help my relatives find affordable housing.. Puuuhhlllleeeaasssse.These people are making me itch. 

Now that that's out of my system....I have a gentleman caller and we are making our way through the beginnings of friendship and such. Six foot two eyes of blue. Male FRIENDSHIP. Perfect.  It's push and pull with me. He must think I'm a yo-yo. One minute I say I'm too overwhelmed with my current Situationship to focus on a new one; the next minute he convinces me that I need him in the kindest of ways. 

I'm drowning in dishes. 

Remember all those dishes I bought in September at the Sale of the Century?Most of them are still here. Sales are UP but not fast enough for me. 

I think I'm allergic to bubblewrap. I'm sure it's not the people...

MUST. FIND. SOMETHING. SMALLER. TO. SELL.

Seriously, I do NOT have time for all this packing and shipping. 

Bree is keeping me entertained day and night. She wants to play "makepop" all the time. So we smear on "wipstick" in a myriad of colors. Then she kisses me on the cheek with a loud POP to leave a BIG mark. It's insanely funny to her.  This is why all my mirrors look like this.

Meanwhile...Beans has started Tae Kwon Do! He can kick higher than a kangaroo.

I'm afraid of him.

I sent out Christmas cards. I had a falling out with a friend that made me sad. I had RSV for a month. I had more nausea from the falling out than the virus. Plumbing and electrical issues here. ACK! Who neeeeds that? My first grandson started college majoring in Computer Science. Remember Baby Boy?

Baby Boy 2010

Making Snowman and Santa cookies with the little ones. Trying not to eat them myself. We're driving around looking at lights like when I was a kid. It was the thing to do! Getting used to having a cat in the house - something I thought I'd NEVER EVER do. And I'm at the age that most times when I search someone on Google, I find an obituary instead. Seriously???! The pandemic has not been kind to mankind. Or maybe I'm just....vintage.
And.oh.the.purging.
I'm throwing out boxes of STUFF. I can't believe I thought I needed all this STUFF. Instead of "stuff" in 2023, how about I try something really important...like a relationship, like taking peace globes to the next level, like taking a ballroom dance class, like finishing that book, like starting all over in the castle once again with a new metamorphosis and a single life vibe that suits me just right. I've climbed over a lot of dross in 2022. I'm long overdue for new pencil skirts. 

Cookies anyone?

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Monday Mimisms ~ Chasing the Days in 3/4 Waltz Time

Sometimes life throws you into a whirlwind dance of change. I'm currently in the waltzing stage. 

Stealing my reading glasses....lol

I've been blessed to have my granddaughter here during the marvelous age of two-years-old. Her parents moved, changed jobs and are house-hunting in this crazy market. It's taking awhile. Houses that were $250K last year are 400K this year. Not a great time to invest, I'd say. So temporary has become more of an extended stay until the right circumstances arise for them. That should be soon.  Alone much, Mimi? That's a big NO.  But it's not about me at the moment. 
When I am tempted to throw my hands in the air and complain about the noisy busy busy busy buzzzz in the house at this time in my life, I try to remember that I will one day soon be thankful for the days of witnessing her learn letters and draw pictures. I will enjoy seeing her in her new room in their new home. And we will plant flowers in her own yard. 
 Conversations with her are fascinating!  She sees the world through simple and glorious eyes. Everything is exciting to her. Everything! The sun. The clouds. The trees. A bug on the ground. Rocks (she collects) and even weeds. Everything is beautiful to her. 

and she sits in the sun

 Snickers the Cat observes it all in lounging style. I want to be more like a cat....no worries, no cares, just peacefully sitting in the sun. When I'm interrupted a million times a day because someone needs something ("Do we have any chocolate milk?" asked Beans at least a hundred times a day. "We're out of paper towels!" "What do you want for dinner tonight?" etc etc) or there's a boo-boo AGAIN, I want to be less irritated and more thankful for Bandaids and such.  I'm working on that. My name has been called at least 300 times since I started this blog post (reminds me of teaching middle school) and reminds me, also, how much I treasure my alone time and look forward to enjoying my own single life again.. I truly have a need for solitude and space. With one complete family downstairs and a myriad of new animals too (that story coming soon) days are mismatched with drama and joy. 

No, this is not Snickers. 

Bree carrying her "baby" cat. She's such a good mommy.

"Do we have strawberry syrup, Mimi?"Beans! I'm trying to write a blog post here!
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Monday Mimisms ~ Moves Like Jagger

Mist forming on a lonely highway. The smell of fresh rain. On my way to pick up grandson #2 (aka Beans) I stopped for a quick drive-thru iced tea at one of my favorite places. The ice is crushed. The tea is perfect. I had plenty of time and I knew my boy would want french fries and ketchup on the side. Back on the highway, I leisurely drove into clouds and rain, sipping my tea. Along about the third curve towards town, torrents of heavy rain began to pitter patter beat on the windshield. Concentrate, Mimi, concentrate...It's just a little rain. Put down the tea....the tea. And then it happened. It was the ice, you see. Crushed. Perfect. Just like she wanted. My hands cupped the glass and I saw her hands...Mama

When we would go shopping on Saturdays, she loved to stop and get crushed ice with sweet tea. It made her happy.    "I miss my mama," cried my heart and then out loud in a storm-soaked vehicle, driving into rain, through rain, becoming rain Oh God, I miss my mama.  I was a complete unexpected mess. The  floodgates opened and would.not.stop, keeping time with the windshield wipers and mixing in the clouds. We were as different as pumpkins and peonies, but today I just wanted to have tea with her and talk about dress shops and flower beds. The sobs came out of nowhere, unlike the stoic resolve I manage to maintain on a usual day....and I could not make them stop. I haven't written much about her since she passed in 2019. Her death was sudden. The aftermath vile and wholly undignified. She didn't deserve the end she was dealt and it was more grief than I could process. 

Beans climbed in the car, eager to spend a week with me, with a what-is-wrong-with-you-Mimi look and why is your mascara running question. No answer. I was spent. Then something amazing and brilliant and fascinating happened.Because he's been permanently banned from cellphones (long sad story for another day oh.the.drama) he did the only thing a phone deprived pre-teen could do.He reached for the radio. "How does this work?" he asked.
Do you know how quickly tears can turn to laughter? I nearly spun into a ditch trying to teach him how to use the dials. And this boy, who always somehow knows just what I need when I need it, turned the volume up to sonic boom, rolled the windows down just for kicks and set the controls on automatic scan. Who taught him to increase the bass? THUMP THUMP through neighborhoods we cruised. I'm sure it could be heard at the International Space Station.    Every ten seconds or so, the music would change from rap to classical to gospel to inappropriate wordy rap (giggles) to talk radio to strings and usually back to very loud rap music. We put on very large rockstar sunglasses and changed our mood and facial expressions to match whatever played. It was hysterical...well...to us...and every neighborhood we passed through as well, including the squirrels and cows and birds trying to catch a glimpse into the runaway rogue mess of a gyrating car we were in.  Until...

Maroon 5 began to sing "Moves Like Jagger"... Stop! Stop it right there! Beans began to bounce. The car bounced. I bounced. My shoulders twitched from side-to-side. My toes tapped on the floorboard and his feet moved on the dashboard. I conducted with one hand (who conducts Mick Jagger?) and drove with the other.  We sang at the top of our lungs as he masterfully executed the washing machine dance in the passenger seat while I crazily snapped my fingers to the beat and banged my head around like a teenager on the sidelines at a Beatles concert. (Yes, I was still driving, my Bloggy People) The clouds were dancing. Mama was dancing. Tea was spilling. Love was flowing.

I forgot all about mascara on my face and why I was crying in the first place. We car danced all the way up the driveway until we stopped for one more look out the rolled-down windows to see how many woodsy creatures we could scare with the Rolling Stones.  I never had a dance partner so brilliant.


The sun came out and we were home. 

 "You just ruined my ears for eternity!" I told him. More laughter. More volume.

Then a loud crushing pain in my heart.

"Nothing is for eternity, my girl," Mama whispered.

 "Everything changes."

And so it does.

Images: Mimi Lenox and Wikimedia Creative Commons
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