Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: The Color Yellow
Be (There)-The Daily Prompt
The Daily Prompt:To be, to have, to think, to move — which of these verbs is the one you feel most connected to? Or is there another verb that characterizes you better?
Move, think, do, be there(which is a verb and adverb) I suppose would best describe me. I like to be busy, to move- get up early, out to the gym, run errands, I can’t stand sitting around wasting time. Sure there are times when I don’t move from the computer for hours, but that is usually only after I have accomplished something during the day.
Think is something I tend to do too much of. As in perseverate. Over think, continue to think about, analyze, dissect. It is a slippery slope once I get something into my head and can’t let it go. Around and around it goes, I forget for a bit but then it pops back up, there for me to ruminate on some more. Obsess over. I am my own worst enemy. I do feel it is better to think than to go through life just getting by and glossing over things. We grow by thinking. We learn by thinking. We can become better people by thinking.
Be there has become more important to me as I have gotten older. Make the effort, show up, support. I have seen too many missed opportunities for people. They “should have” and then it is too late. Last night my niece was being honored at a Dinner hosted by an organization who was recognizing her for the charity work she does. It was an hours drive from where I live, and at night way past when I am usually in my pajamas watching my favorite shows. I drove with another niece who works full time and has 5 children. Going out in the evening is something she does not do, she too is early to bed not to mention exhausted by the evening. As we drove together talking about how we normally are not out past dark, she said, “by tomorrow I will have forgotten how long the drive was and that I got home so late, but Amy (the guest of honor) will always remember we were there for her.” That’s what it is all about.
Tuesday’s A to Z Challenge: “M”
Cee’s Share Your World
Cee’s Share Your World Questions This Week Are:
Did you ever get lost?
I can’t remember ever really getting lost. I do remember driving from Boston Mass to New Jersey and after close to 4 hours realized I was crossing a bridge I never crossed on my way to Boston, and then realized I missed an exit which would have led me from one major highway to another. I wasn’t really lost as I was traveling in the correct direction, but it added an extra 2 hours onto the trip. This was in the days long before GPS, when we used AAA triptik, with map pages which contained the route you had requested AAA to map out. The route was marked in thick black marker. I always kept maps in the glove compartment too.
Who was your best friend in elementary school?
In elementary school it was my friend Lauri who lived 2 houses away. We spent endless days together. We reconnected through Facebook about 5 years ago and have gotten together a few times.
Since the new television season has started in the US, list three favorite TV shows.
The Blacklist. James Spader is amazing! Modern Family, and The Big Bang Theory. They have all had previous seasons. I have not watched anything that is brand new this season yet.
If you were a mouse in your house in the evening, what would you see your family doing?
My husband would be playing the piano and I would be sitting at the kitchen table scrolling through the WordPress reader and catching up on the posts of the day.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
Two years ago last week I broke my elbow which led to a dark period in my life. I am thankful I am where I am now and to this day never take for granted what my elbows allow me to do.
Fact or Fiction
The Daily Prompt: When reading for fun, do you usually choose fiction or non-fiction? Do you have an idea why you prefer one over the other?
These days I seem to read only on occasion and when I do it is non fiction. I have no patience for some nonsensical novel with a trite ending. I do love the books by Amy Tan, her stories are rich and her characters so well developed. John Irving is another favorite, Owen Meany haunted my thoughts for weeks after reading A Prayer For Owen Meany. If it is fiction I want the characters and storyline to contain real meaning.
I like to read about real people, their experiences in life, or to learn something new. I slogged my way through The Emperor of All Maladies only to learn (sadly) we have made little progress in the war on Cancer. Dr Jerome Groopman’s books, The Measure of Our Days and The Anatomy of Hope helped me in my volunteer work when visiting patients in the hospital. I just finished reading The Remarriage Blueprint: How Remarried Couples and Their Families Succeed or Fail by Maggie Scarf which just confirmed my own experience with marrying a man with children and a less than cooperative ex wife.
I wonder if I didn’t have WordPress and Facebook and The Real Housewives if I would actually sit down and read more. Maybe, maybe not. Reading through my Reader on WordPress teaches me things everyday and allows me to gain insight into the lives of others. That’s non fiction enough for me.
Woofstock
On Sunday my husband and I like to get out and do something. We usually stay within an hours drive of where we live, and take in a crafts fair, antique show or street fair. Sometimes we attend a concert in a local library, or take a drive and take a walk. Yesterday we attended Woofstock. Woofstock is sponsored by an organization called PetResQ,that takes in small dogs and puppies, most of which have been neglected, are handicapped or have been abused. Once secured, evaluated and vetted, PetResQ Inc. places each dog into a foster home and the work begins to find a forever home. They operate strictly as volunteers and through donations.
The park was packed with people who had brought their own dogs out for the day, and many who came to see the dogs who were up for adoption and maybe take one home, or volunteer to foster one.There was also a demonstration by the Police on the K-9 Unit explaining the important work their dogs do.
It is heartbreaking to see there are so many dogs in need of being rescued, but also heartwarming to know there are people in the world willing to run an organization like PetResQ to find homes for them.
Sunday Stills, the next challenge: Planes
I don’t like to fly. I like the feeling of having my feet firmly planted on the ground and knowing I can choose to go somewhere else in a moment if I want to. Unlike the feeling of being trapped by being high above terra firma in the clouds. I took this photo the last time I flew, 5 years ago.
Finding x Is Only Important If You Are A Pirate
Today my husband and I went to a street fair. It was a beautiful day and unseasonably warm for the beginning of fall. The street was lined with booths with craft items, information handouts, plants, and then this:
What a way to ruin a lovely day. Just seeing the sign made me break out in a cold sweat and my head to start spinning. The evil X of Algebra. X=? Yes, I never was able to figure that out. EVER. It just made no sense to me. When I googled Algebra this is what it said: “Algebra is about finding the unknown or it is about putting real life problems into equations and then solving them.” Are they kidding? Real life problems into equations? Not my real life problems. Never have I turned to Algebra to solve my real life problems. “The x replaces the unknown that we are trying to find out.” Oh, okay now that makes it clear. NOT. I always like to find the answers to things I don’t know about, learn new things, but using an x as an unknown is just not how I need to do it. I know Algebra must serve some purpose in the lives of some people, but not for me. However, I could see the wheels turning in my CPA husband’s head, and sure enough he got the answer in no time.
and the winner is……
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: The Color Blue
Giver or Taker?
Daily Prompt: If you had to come up with one question, the answer to which would determine whether or not you could be friends with a person you’ve just met, what would it be?
Of course there would be more than one question, but an important one would be are they a giver or a taker? Are they someone who will suck the life out of a friend with their constant neediness while never being there for the other person? Will they forever have drama that they need to be rescued from? Will they need favors that they are never around to return? Will they have a listening ear?
It took me many years to learn that just because I was a giver did not mean everyone else was too. Maybe it was my own feelings of insecurity, of needing to be needed, that led me into friendships with the takers. That I somehow felt by always being there and doing for someone else determined my own self worth. Fortunately I came to learn, (the hard way I will add) this is never the case. In the end I only felt abandoned and alone and taken advantage of. With age comes wisdom as the saying goes, and being a “friend to all” is not what life is all about. Being a friend to those who truly value you as a person and will be there for you in the same way is what it is all about.
Tuesday’s A to Z challenge: “L”
Old Friends….Memory Brushes The Same Years
The High School graduating class 2 years before mine had their 40th reunion this weekend in my home town, where I still live. I was close with many people from that year’s class, and have remained in touch with some of them since. I meet one friend who lives in my area for coffee every few months. Another friend and I reconnected through Facebook years ago and see each other when he comes to town on business. The foundation of these friendships run deep. We spent hours in school together and then weekends with each other too. We lived through our parent’s rules, learning to drive, the new music that Eric Clapton, ELP, and Bruce Springsteen were making. The ins and outs of who wanted to date who, and who didn’t.
I met a few of the friends who came to town for the reunion for coffee yesterday, two of whom I had not seen (except on FB) since 1974. We all immediately slipped right into conversation and laughs and reminiscing. Instead of talking about the latest musical releases, the conversation turned to visiting the graves of the parents who were no longer here, receiving AARP letters in the mail, and the joy of grandchildren and paying off the last and final college payment for their kids. In that one hour we were able to recapture a piece of what had been our lives so long ago, our youth, all of us knowing exactly what the other was talking about because we had been there together through it.
Our looks may have changed, and life has been easier for some than others, but sitting there over coffee it didn’t matter, it all melted away and we were 17 years old once again. The comfort of that hour stayed with me all day.
Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Candid Photography
Travel Theme: Strong
My sister facing health challenges for close to a year and going through it with grace, fortitude and an amazing amount of strength.
She is STRONG
A Photo a Week: Music
My father loved music and loved to sing. He passed this love and appreciation for music on to me, and taught me how to use my voice properly when singing. He recorded a few songs onto vinyl record in a studio in 1953 which I was able to transfer to CD a few years ago. He passed away 9 years ago but I am thankful to still be able to hear his beautiful voice.
Daily Post Photo Challenge: Endurance
This plant was cut down but that did not stop it from sprouting new buds 
Endurance
It’s A Pleasure To Meet You
The Daily Prompt: Delayed Contact
How would you get along with your sibling(s), parent(s), or any other person you’ve known for a long time — if you only met them for the first time today?
This thought has come to mind when I get together with friends I have known from childhood or my teenage years, or even those I met in my 20’s. If I were to meet them today I most likely would not be friends with them. What binds us together is that place in time, the familiarity, the comfort of knowing one another from the beginning. Sometimes it is because they were there during an important time in my life, and that still keeps us connected. In the present though, we live very different lives, our values may be different, our interests no longer common. My BFF and I have remained BFF’s for over 40 years because we continue to roll along with the changes. The differences don’t matter at all.
We are bound to our relatives by blood, but often that is not enough to sustain the relationship. Many siblings “opt out” of their relationship because the differences are just too great. Blood is not thicker than water. It is very possible that we may not really like the person we are related to and would certainly never choose them for a friend. Our friends become the “sister from another mister” or “brother from another mother” which I wrote about previously here
Having a close relationship with a sibling is not a given for everyone, and often takes more work than the relationships we have with friends. Sibling relationships often carry a lifetime of family baggage and hang ups that left unaddressed can fester into a volcanic eruption dividing them. I know first hand, I’ve been there. I am happy to say I reached a place in my life where I was able to accept and ignore the differences because the relationship was more important. Viewing it through a different lens, meeting that sibling anew today.
My sister with my BFF
Sister,niece,BFF
Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge
I am not a fan of tunnels, but they are a necessary evil in order to get to many places. Usually there are two lanes going in one direction, but my least favorite experience is when the lanes are going in opposite directions.
87 Is Just A Number
I saw my Aunt last night at a family party. Technically she is my husband’s Aunt, his mother’s sister, but that is just a technicality after my being in the family over 20 years. I remember clear as day when she called to say congratulations when we became engaged. She was so welcoming and warm and friendly. She is very “family oriented” stopping at nothing to please her children, grandchildren and her 17 great grandchildren.
As I watched her interacting with the family last night, talking to the three year olds, listening to what was new with a 30 year old, and discussing the latest world events with me and another niece, it dawned on me that I had forgotten just how old she is. She is vibrant and “with it” very much present in what is going on in the world around her. Her attitude remains positive though she personally has suffered the greatest loss- the death of her son 7 years ago at the age of 50. She is full of energy, and never misses a family event. It is a lesson for me to watch her, how she joins in so completely, always with a smile.
At one point in the evening she was dancing with her daughter in law, granddaughter and great granddaughter. After a few minutes she broke away, she had become emotional. I went over to her to make sure she was ok, and said to her “tears of happiness?” to which she replied, “Yes, how much more fortunate could I be to live to be part of this moment?”
How fortunate am I to still be able to share in the life of my Aunt. Very, I would say.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Buildings
East Side, West Side, All Around the Town…
Tuesday’s A to Z challenge: “K”
One Small Gesture Can Make One Big Difference
News came to me yesterday that someone I had known long ago had died. His name was Howard. Hearing he had died made me sad, made me think back to my childhood. He and his family lived on the block I grew up on, and I started babysitting for his children when I was 10. I remember him being so encouraging when I was a “tween”- always so positive about what I could accomplish. One summer I accompanied his family on vacation as a mother’s helper, spending a week at the beach with them.Then I hit 16 and boys and parties were calling, and I handed off the babysitting to my younger sister.
As graduation from high school approached I found myself in a quandary as to what to do. I knew I did not want to go to college- I was not a student, and was done with school. Finding a job when you have no experience always poses a problem. Howard made a phone call to a friend of his who owned a jewelry store and asked them to meet with me even though I had no prior experience. I got the job. It was that job that led me into the career I ended up pursuing. The door had been opened because someone was willing to take a chance on me because of Howard’s recommendation. I have never forgotten that.
I ran into Howard about 2 years ago, it was the first time I had seen him in over 30 years. I took the opportunity to tell him what a difference he had made in my life by making that phone call, and that I never forgot it. He barely remembered it and said it was me that had proven myself in the interview and that was why I got the job. But I knew better- if not for the call I would never have had the opportunity to prove myself.
We never know who will come into our lives that will believe in us and go out on a limb for us that then leads to making a difference in our lives. Howard was that person for me. May he rest in peace.
Sunday Stills, the next challenge: Orange
I have never owned a pair of sneakers that draw so many comments every time I wear them, as my orange sneakers do.
Sunday Stills Challenge: Orange
Weekly Photo Challenge: Humanity
Humanity
The child holding the camera told his father to turn his face away from the camera before shooting- he specifically did not want him facing the camera- at such a young age he already seems to have an eye for setting up a shot.
Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Far Away in the Distance
A Day In The Life 
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