Tag: friends

Hump Day Happy

Something that makes me happy: The way the lights from the Christmas tree reflect off a bedroom door in our house.

 

 

Do YOU want something to be happy about? Look; it’s the Christmas Gecko!


He can’t get you a lower rate on your car insurance, but if you comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, he will hasten to find what in this book will make you happy.

The Christmas Gecko was provided by codyfrizbeejr. Thank you, Rob, and I’m sending good thoughts to you during a bad time.

Ninja Fire

Confidential to Mr. Puterbaugh.

Apparently, I come from a long line of women who go rogue. I think you’ll get what I mean:

***********

Last week, I virtuously went to the dentist (Look, Ma, no cavities!), went to the lab two months late to get my blood drawn, and conducted some mara-freaking-thon shopping. And you know I DO NOT LIKE TO SHOP. But I got a lot done, including getting all my holiday cards in the mail along with 13 packages.

Some of my errands were prompted by Ninja Lesbians. In a covert operation, they delivered to The Compound:


A chiminea!

Anyone who knows me knows I love a nice fire (nice means no structures, living trees, or woodland creatures are involved). Even though we don’t have much cold weather, we do have a little period of time when there are no mosquitoes and being outside doesn’t lead to heatstroke. On those occasions, I’ve speculated that it would be fun to sit outside with friends next to a crackling fire and yell at the dogs if they seem inclined to look for lawn hors d’oeuvres.

After Lindsey and Rhonda gave us the chiminea, they explained there were rules, and Lindsey even found them online. Apparently, I needed play sand or pea gravel before I built the first small fires. Trip to Lowe’s–check. I also needed something called Butcher’s Wax to help seal the outside of the chiminea. Lowe’s–nope. Home Depot–nope.

Tim then suggested that I go to the bowling alley in the basement (Hi, Greg!) under the TimLair.


Timpire Lanes.

Now I don’t really have a problem with basements. But I fear bowling alleys. (Hi, rude nephew and nieces. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that night in the 1980s when you made me put on those hideous shoes, promised not to laugh, then fell on the floor howling when I…) I digress. Look!


Butcher’s Wax!

And I’ve done my part:

So now we just have to create an area somewhere on the grounds for our first fire. And I have to keep my promise that no starter fluid will be involved.

Another on the list of great unanswerable questions in Becky World

I’ve only had two on the list for a long time, but now a third thing has mysteriously vanished from my life, and after a year of searching, I’ve accepted that I’ll never know how, or why, or where to find it.

1. My push puppet lion (fifth grade)
2. My friend Bobby (1988)
3. My old laptop bag (November 2007)

On the plus side, Jim’s famous and delicious egg dish is baking in the oven, and I’ll be able to ponder these mysteries with it, bacon, and coffee very soon. Life always has its rewards. Including:


Spaghetti and Survivor night with Lynne, in which I talk her into putting
on goofy elf hats, and she closes her eyes in every photo.


Taking photos of Rex, who looks very much like he’s about to be sent away from his village,
while Lindsey and Rhonda sing the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack to him.

Memories

This is Hallmark’s 1995 Holiday Memories Barbie. She was designed to commemorate 85 years of Hallmark, who described her as wearing an early twentieth century outfit (with “faux fur”) to go shopping for holiday postcards on a snowy afternoon. I think she’s got the right idea. In these days of e-mail, texting, and easy accessibility by phone, there’s something special about getting a card, a letter, or a postcard in snail-mail. Receiving and sending cards are two of the things I like best about December.

On this day last year, The Compound was in upheaval, Tim was in Maine, and Rex was lonesome. And as always, I was thinking about my friend John and imagining what trouble he’d be charming his way out of if he were still around.

These are a few of my favorite things…

You want to hurt me for the ear worm that is my title, don’t you?

A few nights ago, The Brides, Tom, and I went to one of my favorite-memory restaurants, the Ambassador. I first went there with my friend John and some of his friends back in the mid nineties, and ever since, I always order the soup he introduced me to. It’s called “sizzling rice” soup. The server combines the crispy rice table-side with a bowl of steaming soup, and the resulting crackle is as fun to hear as the soup is comforting to eat.


Bad me, for letting the shadow of my camera strap fall on my bowl.
I didn’t want to reshoot it because Lindsey pointed out that the waitstaff was
lined up watching and laughing at me.
But the soup–it’s so good!

On the way to the restaurant, we passed some office buildings in Greenway Plaza that had the most alluring lights twinkling in their massive windows. Lindsey and I talked about going out night-shooting sometime. The next night, I was awake and bored. Since it was the middle of the night, I didn’t think Lindsey would appreciate a call. So I took a solitary drive around. That late, the lights were off in the Greenway Plaza building, but I got a lot of shots downtown. Word: Even if one possesses minimal photography skills, with a good camera and a tripod, great photos are possible UNLESS you are a woman alone in the middle of the night. Then you think, Am I INSANE? and get your not-so-great shots on the fly. Still, I’m pleased with several of them and will probably share them over time. This is not my most favorite, but ranks right up there because I love that I was able to capture the movement of the only two people visible in a radius of several blocks.

Since Tim’s stocking is not yet hung by the chimney with care (my fault, not his–I haven’t asked for it), I’ll delay tree photos. Plus I keep finding more ornaments to hang. However, you know it’s Christmas at The Compound when the sleighbells appear. Since I didn’t decorate last year, I didn’t realize that the 2007 and 2008 additions, which upped my total to eighteen, would be two too many for my little tree. I placed those two randomly next to others. Next year, I’ll have to find another way to display them. (There is a precedent: In 2006 they looked like this.) This year, they look like this:


I added the tiny ornaments to give them some color, because I remember 2005, too.

Two Decades of World AIDS Day

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of World AIDS Day. The theme continues from the 2007 campaign: Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise—Lead, Empower, Deliver. This theme is meant to highlight the fact that many individuals and organizations have already offered up their leadership skills, and now policy makers need to find the resources to deliver on their promises. The campaign is calling on everyone, including families, communities, social organizations, and governments to take the initiative in helping meet the target goals.

Ways you can be a leader in the fight against HIV and AIDS:

Wear a red ribbon today as a symbol of hope, in memory of those lost to AIDS, and in honor of those living with HIV and AIDS.

Find out how the day is being recognized in your community. Some examples: Attend a candlelight vigil, a tree or bulletin board decorating ceremony, a display of NAMES Quilt panels.

Talk about HIV and AIDS in your workplace, at school, on your blog, at church, to your family and friends. How has HIV/AIDS impacted you or someone you know?

Learn more about HIV and AIDS–there are many resources online.

Get tested. Drive someone else to be tested and be supportive.

Contribute time or money, not just on this day, but any day you can, to an organization that assists those living with or impacted by HIV and AIDS.

Let your legislators know that HIV/AIDS matters to you.

For Steve R, Don P, Jeff C, John M, Tim R, Pete M

Bountiful table, cool kid

I got a call from a friend this week who was in London a couple of days after our election. When people found out he was from the U.S., they cautiously asked, “What did you think about the election?” When he told them he was ecstatic about the outcome, their reserve turned to enthusiasm for Obama in particular and the States in general. He was surrounded by goodwill and optimism during his entire visit, and he said it felt wonderful.

Contrast that to an early post-election article I recently read by a British columnist who thinks Obama’s election means we have now begun our relentless slide into decay and our eventual demise. Apparently the mixture of hope and skepticism are not confined to our side of the Atlantic.

Timmy noted in a post the other day something that I’ve noticed, too: His errand-running and such have presented to him a public that is hurting financially and unsure what’s next, yet they’re smiling, shopping (maybe for bargains or with a more practical eye), and talking to one another with an attitude of “We’ll be fine. We’ll figure it out.” That’s what some people call our arrogance, and maybe it is. But it’s also the determination, strength, and sheer refusal to be not fine that we’ve brought with us from many other shores and lands and drawn on for several hundred years. It’s not surprising when we bicker and separate and distrust, because we bring our differences from everywhere and always have.

But we also get together. We get together in our stores and our churches and our workplaces. We get together in our schools and our election polls and our restaurants. We get together in our bars and our sporting arenas and our museums. And in person, we very rarely talk to each other the way anonymous people insult each other in comments to any article or story on the Internet (and I highly advise not reading those, or you’ll lose all faith in humanity’s decency and literacy). Oh, you can see us on youtube and in the news behaving very badly, but there’s no excitement in watching people behave well, so that perspective is skewed.

I know many of the differences between me and the people I spent my day with yesterday, and I also know those differences don’t matter. I don’t think there was a person in the house who hasn’t reached out in kindness to help others and who wouldn’t do it again. Our views on politics and religion and government and some of the big hot-button issues are widely divergent. And most of us have been hurt by the economy in our jobs and our savings. We have things to worry about…and so what? There will always be things to worry about.

There will also be days like this:


A table overflowing because we all contributed the turkey and stuffing, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, rolls, cakes, pies, and sweetened and unsweetened ice tea.

But if all any of us had to bring was bread and water, we’d still be there laughing and reminiscing and brushing away the occasional tear for the ones who won’t be there again. And if we sometimes disagree on the best course for the future, at least we all know what we’re working toward:

All the trusting faces and beautiful eyes, and the soft little feet that will wear the coolest shoes as they learn to walk through a world that we’re determined to make better for them.

I hope your Thanksgiving had good moments like that, too.