Good News Bad News

Little J snuggled under his covers last night, without a lot of drama much to my relief. It always feels like a miracle when the bedtime routine is accomplished in less than 20 minutes. But, in spite of my own exhaustion, I had to return to his room when he called me back with, "Grandma, don't you want to hear the good news bad news?"

It's not our usual routine to discuss good news bad news. We usually just do the what's-the-best-thing-that-happened-today routine. Curiosity brought me back to his bedside.


"OK, what is it?" I asked.


"Well do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

I thought for a minute before responding, "maybe you better give me the bad first to get it out of the way."

He squirmed a bit under the blanket. I'm thinking this must be really bad. "I dropped my new Pikachu toothbrush in the toilet." I'm thinking, well there goes another $6.99 toothbrush plus who knows what for the plumber. Before I could think any further, he follows up with the good news. "Grandma, here's the good news... I didn't flush the toilet."

StoryCircle Memoir Challenge # 2

My 2nd review for the StoryCircle challenge to read 4 memoirs in 4 months and review in 4 sentences...

The Sitting Swing
by Irene Watson
Pub 2008 by Loving Healing Press
ISBN 9781932690675

Irene Watson begins her memoir with her introduction into the Avalon Center where she seeks guidance to heal the scarring of a painful and abusive childhood. Growing up in the shadow of an older brother who dies early, much of her trauma is a result of her parents mix of overprotectiveness blended with events they chose to conveniently overlook. Inside the walls of Avalon, we see Irene's struggle from her beginning denial and resistance to the breakthrough realization that healing doesn't begin until she faces the past, re-writes the script, and moves on. Irene tells her courageous story in honest and simple language, almost as if she were sitting in the room speaking to a close friend.

MZ Needs

Prompted by an entry that I found in my nieces Facebook notes, I decided to search google for my needs. First I used the name that most people call me and came up with this list:
1. needs to remember that to get rid of the fearful temper
2. Needs obit
3. Needs obit/Needs family history & genealogy message board
4. (needs a punch in the ...
5. needs your help
6. needs to laugh once in a while
7. needs a new business
8. needs legal aid
9. needs a home
10.needs to verbalize experiences

Using my birth certificate name provided slight different results:
1. needs a home environment that can provide her abundant structure
2. needs to...
3. needs a Mrs. Clause
4. needs a feeling of safety in her place
5. needs Obama to explain his position
6. needs bed bugs
7. needs a Valium
8. needs to know
9. needs to learn to love and value herself before she finds happiness in love
10. needs to get fierce photo into the real world

Good thing I have a keen sense of humor. Otherwise I would need to ask, "Is there any hope for me?"

Magnetic Energy

So, Big Brother sends Little J a most generous gift for his birthday. Little J has been looking at the big box for days. Grandma keeps telling him, "It's not your birthday yet." Little J gets up this morning and plops down the package firmly stating, "Well now it's my birthday." Who can argue with that? Turned out it was all good. Little J was very pleased with his new building abilities and Grandma and Grandpa got some coffee time. As for the rest of the day, the party was great fun... for Little J. And that's a good thing. He deserves it. He and his friends were magnetized with Bakugan. We sent the kids home in the usual birthday party fashion... just wired enough on pizza and sugary birthday cake to keep their parents on their toes.

So the party is over. Time to go kick Wanda out of her hiding place. My turn.

Look for magnetic action here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL4gf8YTYkI

Where's Wanda?

Happy Valentine's Day. Well, at least we think it's happy. Wanda isn't so sure. She realizes that it is also Little J's Birthday. She knows something's up. There was a flurry of activity around here this morning. As if changing the litter boxes wasn't enough, there was also that darn noisy carpet cleaner. Candles are lit and there's a dozen red roses on the table. The final straw... the Lysol spray. Gads, the house has been decontaminated and deordorized. After Wanda attacked the ribbons on Little J's birthday gift she was banished to the bedroom. Wanda doesn't seem to mind much though...one six year old boy is already one too many for her and she heard there will be a bunch more arriving any minute. Where are the other 3 cats? Under the bed perhaps.

Breast Cancer Awareness

Red Hatters have been using red and purple bras for purses and hats for years. I posted this picture of my bra purse 4 years ago. Take a look at this fun and funny project for breast cancer awareness ... The Artful Bras Project . Be sure to read the captions - they are a hoot!

Ack... Something's Missing Here

Do raccoons grow new tails???

Eat Pray Love Review

As part of HerStories Memoir Challenge, here's the first 4 sentence review. (3 more to go):

Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir of her recovery from divorce and a severe bout of depression has three distinct parts. Through 108 tales (beads) she takes the reader on a lively, meditative and romantic memoir of travels to three countries, Italy, India and Indonesia. EAT seems at times to be a travelog of her three month quest in Italy to fill an insatiable appetite, PRAY is an intimate and honest revelation of soul searching in an Indian Ashram and LOVE brings everything together in Indonesian balance. The book is entertaining as well as informative, incorporates a full cast of interesting characters, and the sad and pensive moments are balanced with a good sense of humor.

Christmas 2008 in Oakland

Reading... Not Writing

The obvious... 2008 was dead on slow as far as blog entries for me. In 6 years (I didn't count 2002 where I started the blog in December) only one other year this slow with a mere 64 entries. Lack of interest? Definitely not. Lack of time? More likely. Writer's block? Even more likely. So what's up?... Perhaps it's time to do a bit of reading. Good timing considering StoryCircle's current challenge. I need to find 4 memoirs to indulge this challenge. Two are already on my nightstand so I'll start with those...

Grace(Eventually) by Anne Lamott
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I'll be checking StoryCircle website for the other two.

Not to say I won't write. Just waiting for that trigger.