Archive | December 2009

Closing Out A Decade

Dec31

In just a few short hours, a year will end….and so will a decade!  To say that this year has flown by would be an understatement.   An old saying tells us that the older we get, the faster the time flies by.  I believe it!  Recent years feel like I wake up on New Year’s morning, blink, and it is suddenly New Year’s Eve of a new year!

New Year’s Eve is a day of reflection — closing out and saying goodbye to a year past and celebrating the beginning of a year to come.  Going through a symbolic closure is important for our ability to successfully move on.  So, in keeping with the tradition of reflecting on the past, here are some of the key events that defined the past year and decade for me:

2009:

  • Made it up to Mom’s three times and she made it down to my home twice!
  • My brother and his wife made their first trip to my home.
  • Made it to Hawaii!!!
  • Finally got all the white walls in my house painted some of the most beautiful colors and it looks GREAT!
  • Joined the Carolina Animal Rescue and Adoption (CARA) board.
  • Reconnected with several of my old high school friends and attended a great reunion get together with a bunch of them!
  • The Girls stopped eating and tearing up everything in sight!

The movies I liked the MOST in 2009:

  • It’s Complicated
  • The Blind Side
  • Up
  • Taken
  • Hotel for Dogs

The movies I disliked the MOST in 2009:

  • The Box
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife
  • The Last House of the Left

And now for the things that defined the past decade for me:

  • Watch the turn of a new century
  • Earned my Master’s Degree
  • Bought my house
  • Took on a new role at work
  • Lost my precious Puddles after about 16 years of companionship
  • Traveled all the way to Arizona just to be with a friend of about 45+ years on her 50th birthday party
  • Enjoyed a wonderful trip to Las Vegas with Mom – a first for both of us!
  • Was shocked and saddened by the events of 9/11 and the failing economy
  • Experienced some health issues – some pretty serious – and learned to live with them and make life style accommodations
  • Started this blog

So, how did I do on my 2009 Resolutions?

Not bad!!!  I went back to read the post I wrote on January 1st and think I honored the promises I made to myself pretty closely! 

The first one was to “take care of me first and stop worrying about things I have little or no control over” – I took better control of my health, maintained and renewed a membership at Natural Balance Medical Spa for monthly pampering appointments, and consistently stopped to remind myself to not get so stressed when things were out of my control.  I think I did a decent job of this — but I can still use some improvement there, so will continue to work on it!

The second one was to paint the interior walls in my house – DONE!!!

The third wasn’t as successful as I had hoped — it was to go out to eat less and cook more!  The intent was to let me focus on renewing my love of cooking and polish an old skill that I was good at and lost some of!  Well, I did do a fair amount of home cooking and even upgraded my kitchen appliances to help!  But, I have to be honest and say that it wasn’t as successful as I intended it to be —- so, I think this one needs to go back on the list to work on this year!

All in all, I think the year and the decade was good to me — some low points, but a lot of high points — I’ll have to give some thought to what I want to resolve to work on this year and put them in another post. 

For now, I am thankful to be able to ring in the New Year with my Mom and do it with good health and happiness for both of us!  Life is good!

Movie Review – It’s Complicated

Dec25

Christmas Day at the movies — a great tradition that I enjoy very much!  I watch for what movies will be released on Christmas Day and pretty much decide which one I plan to see long before the day gets here!  This year, I was torn between two – “It’s Complicated” and “Nine”.  I couldn’t decide, so I settled for going to BOTH!!!  Then, I looked at the show times to see what I needed to do to juggle them and was very disappointed to find out that “Nine” didn’t come to Sanford!  I would have to go to Cary to see it!  I toyed with the idea of going to Cary, but decided that I didn’t want to devote the entire day to movies, so made the choice to only see “It’s Complicated” in Sanford.

The movie stars Meryl Streep (Jane), Alec Baldwin (Jake), and Steve Martin (Adam).  Jane and Jake are divorced and have three grown children.  The divorce, caused by Jake cheating on Jane with a much younger girl,  resulted in 10 years of bitterness and the inability for them to be in the same room with each other.  During a weekend trip to see their son graduate in NYC, they are thrown into a situation where they have dinner, get drunk, and  end up in bed with each other!  While they proceed with an affair (by the way – Jake is still married to the younger woman he cheated on his wife with), Jane meets Adam, an architect that is working on an addition on her home.  hilarity ensues!!!  Scene after scene cracked me up — it was so funny and enjoyable! 

The story was cute, the characters were perfect, and it was such fun to watch!  The audience seemed to agree with me – they were laughing out loud, clapping, and gasping throughout the entire film!  It was a thoroughly entertaining afternoon!

I rate this one an A and highly recommend it for anyone who just wants to be entertained and laugh!

Happy Everything To You!

Dec23

I don’t necessarily get offended when I hear someone say “Happy Holidays” – it depends on the reason and context the greeting is used.  “Happy Holidays” is an expression that has been around for a long, long time – it isn’t new.  I remember seeing Christmas cards with that greeting, as well as “Tis the Season”, when I was a child (we won’t talk about how long ago that was, but it was definitely before the world started all this “politically correct” crap).

The phrase is intended to be a broad greeting to wish happiness for someone over the course of the holiday season stretching from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.  When you use it in that context, I see nothing wrong with it – especially now that we’ve come to be more sensitive to those from other cultures and beliefs. 

What I don’t agree with is that it has turned into a mandate in some ways – store clerks not allowed to give a specific greeting or people being vocally offended when someone else doesn’t realize they may not celebrate a particular holiday.  Since when is a friendly greeting of any kind offensive – the specific or more general kind?  And I don’t see those same stores that mandate no “Merry Christmas” greeting allowed stopping the sale of Christmas trees or other Christmas specific items that boost their sales – can’t have it both ways, guys!

No one can take “Christ” out of “Christmas” for YOU, if that is what is in your heart and your belief!  What takes “Christ” out of “Christmas” in general are those who focus solely on the Santa and gifts part of the holiday – not the use of a friendly greeting of “Happy Holidays”.

I feel using “Happy Holidays” is appropriate when you are truly wishing someone a happy holiday “season” and encompassing all the holidays.  Bringing joy and well wishes over the season is a good thing and should result in smiles and returned well wishes.  It is also appropriate when you are greeting a stranger that you don’t know what their beliefs are – you can’t always tell by looking at someone what religion or culture they celebrate, so to be sensitive of that is being courteous to our fellow human beings, not ignoring any one holiday or forgetting the “reason for the season” – each holiday has it’s own “reason”!

However, if you are talking about a specific holiday or if you know the individual’s beliefs, you really should be more specific and honor those beliefs.  If you are talking about Christmas, say Merry Christmas.  If you are talking about Thanksgiving, say Happy Thanksgiving.  If you are talking about Hanukkah, say Happy Hanukkah.  If you are talking about Kwanzaa, say Happy Kwanzaa.  And on with any other holidays I may not be aware of or forgetting at this moment!  Honor each and every holiday as appropriate to the occasion and the person you are greeting.  Afterall – a greeting is more for the person you are offering it to and should be catered to them, not you.  

BUT — I still say that a friendly greeting of any kind can’t possibly be offensive if it is genuine, from the heart, and not offered out of sarcasm.  If someone greets me with “Happy Hanukkah” or “Happy Holidays” or whatever friendly greeting I receive, I smile and respond with “Thank you, same to you.” and depending on whether or not I know the person, I may also add “and Merry Christmas to you.”!  And I certainly don’t mean it sarcastically in the sense that I want them to know I think they are taking the “Christ” out of “Christmas” or that I am offended that they chose to honor their holiday instead of mine!  That is their right, same as it is mine to honor my holiday!  I am touched and happy to receive a friendly greeting of any kind and am saddened when my return friendly greeting results in someone taking offense by it.  But, if a person wants me to join them in their joy or is just unaware that I may honor a different holiday than they do, why would I be offended by that? 

So, come on, people — let’s just be happy about the wonders of the entire season — honor and hold dear the specific holidays we each celebrate in our own way — and stop being offended if someone chooses to greet us differently than we greet others.  Life’s too short and precious to spend it being offended by someone wanting to offer a friendly invitation to celebrate something – whatever that may be!

May everyone reading this find true joy in your lives!

For those honoring the same holiday that I do – the glorious birth of Christ:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

For those honoring a different holiday:

I wish you much happiness on whatever holiday you honor!

Movie Review – Did You Hear About The Morgans?

Dec21

Sunday was a lazy day, but I did take time to go to Cafe 121 for brunch and take in a movie.  I decided on “Did You Hear About The Morgans?”, the new Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant film.  The critics have been slamming it and the Yahoo users were mixed – they either loved it or hated it for an average rating of C+.  From the previews I figured I’d probably be somewhere in between – it looked like a cute story, but probably wasn’t one I’d end up raving about.  I was right…..it was OK – enjoyable, funny at times, cute story, but overall not great!

The story is about the Paul and Meryl Morgan (Grant and Parker) who are having marital problems (Paul cheated on Meryl).  After going to dinner to try to talk things out, they witness a murder and the killer sees them.  This results in them becoming the key witnesses in a major crime ring, so the feds put them in the witness protection program.  The Morgans – life long NYC residents who, to quote Meryl, “I don’t even like Connecticut!” – are thrust into seclusion in Ray, Wyoming – the ultimate definition of “the middle of nowhere”!   It is funny to watch them try to cope with life in the ruralest of rural places, the people who live there, and the relationships they form – including their own.

The story is cute and caused me and a couple others in the audience to chuckle out loud a few times.  What I enjoyed most was seeing Sam Elliott, who played the Federal Marshall they are sent to stay with in Wyoming.  I love Sam Elliott – his voice totally melts me through – and I miss seeing him in films!  Other notable characters are played by Mary Steenburgen (Sam Elliott’s wife) and Wilford Brimley (who played the crusty owner of a local diner).

Overall, I did enjoy the movie, but it won’t be memorable.  I rate it a B- (the Sam Elliott factor kept it out of the high Cs) and recommend it for a quiet evening when it comes out on DVD.

Pet Peeve of the day

Dec12

I am renewing a pet peeve I posted about in January that still tends to irritate me whenever I encounter it….what gives with this?  Am I missing something here?  This baffles me to no end!!!  Come on people – unless you have a Mommie that follows you around and does it for you, take care of your own business!!!

The source of my irritation involves those sanitary paper liners for public restrooms.  The intended use of these is a good thing and many people use them to help maintain some level of sanitation in public restrooms.  What bothers me are the people who use them and then just get up and leave the stall without disposing of the liner – they just leave it on the seat for the next person to deal with.  Come on — are they THAT paranoid of germs that they can’t carefully touch the outer edges of a paper liner that they didn’t mind touching when they put it in place and just push it into the toilet?  It’s not like they have to crumple it up in their hands to toss it in a trash receptacle.  They use the same hands to use toilet paper before they get up – if you get my drift (at least I would hope they do).   They are even going to go right out and wash their hands (again, at least I would hope they do).  AND – it was THEIR butt that was on the liner!!   DUH!!!  It is totally selfish and disrespectful to leave it for the next person or someone responsible for cleaning the restroom to take care of — we certainly don’t want to touch something they had their butt on – especially if they aren’t willing to do so!!!

Dreams

Dec11

I had two very strange dreams last night close to morning and time to be getting up.  They both woke me and made it hard to get back to sleep.  I was thinking about what might have caused them and couldn’t come up with anything!  Guess there is something bazaar going on in my subconscious, but not sure what would have triggered these particular dreams!

The first one was short…..I dreamed that I was riding in my Mom’s car coming from Albion towards Eagle Harbor.  As we got close to the canal bridge on Eagle Harbor Road, I noticed a new sign on the other side of the bridge where the old post office and store used to be.  It was the famous golden arches of McDonald’s!  I burst out laughing and said, “They are putting a McDonald’s in Eagle Harbor?  Seriously?  Is there enough traffic that goes through here to indicate they might do a good business here?  In Eagle Harbor?” and continued to laugh about it.  Just as Mom got ready to turn onto the bridge, we noticed it was lifting.  I said, “Careful, the bridge is going up.”  She pulled up really close to it to maneuver the car into a position straight on to the bridge, instead of at an angle from the stop sign.  In doing that, I thought she was a little too close, so I said again, “Watch out, the bridge is going up.”  Just then, her front tires slipped over the edge of the road and when the bridge finished lifting, the car did a nose dive into the canal.  When I realized we were going to end up in the canal, I rolled my window down and told Mom to do the same so that we could get out easily.  We got out and stood on some rocks waiting for the bridge to come back down.  I looked up and saw my brother and his wife standing on the bridge and I yelled at them “hey, Mom’s car is in the canal” and we all burst out laughing again!  Then I told Mom that we need to swim to the bridge so we could climb up the canal bank.  That was when I woke up!

The next one was longer, but just as odd!  I dreamed that I was eating lunch in La Dolce Vita with some friends from work.  We were sitting there talking when a couple of young girls started arguing as they stood by our table.  The argument turned really aggressive and they started shoving each other and then started throwing fists at each other!  They were fighting and bumping into our table, so I poured a glass of ice water on one of them to get them to stop.  When that didn’t work, I poured another glass on the other one.  That didn’t work, either, so I and some others tried pushing at them to break them up.  Just then a SWAT team came busting through the door with shields and guns and ordered everyone to get down on the floor and put our hands behind our heads and don’t look up.  They broke up the fight and took the two girls out of the restaurant in hand cuffs.  They told us all to remain on the floor with our hands behind our heads.  They kept yelling out orders that we couldn’t understand under their face shields.  Finally, they started grabbing us one by one by the arm and taking us to the counter to pay for our meals and leave our name, phone number, and addresses for the lawyers to contact us for statements.  They told me that I may be hearing from the lawyers about my assault on the girls – I said I didn’t understand because all I was doing was trying to break it up.  He said it was illegal to throw water on someone and that I may face charges.  He was being very mean about it and seemed extremely angry that I stepped in and did what I did!  We left the restaurant and got in a big school bus.  I was sitting in the front seat in the row closest to the door (not the row behind the driver).  The driver was taking us back to our respective places of work and drove down one road that looked like it was near the court house somewhere.  As he came up a little incline to a stop light, it turned green and he proceeded through the intersection.  The road on the other side of the stop light was a sharp down hill and once he got the bus over the hump where we could see the road ahead, we saw that it was all fresh dirt and a HUGE hole.  There was nothing the driver could do but yell for everyone to HANG ON TIGHT!  We did a full speed nose dive into the big hole and the bus crashed and was flipping in slow motion onto the roof.  That is when I jolted awake with such a jerk that I heard a big snap in my neck and upper back!!!  It caused a really sharp pain and is still really painful!!!  I’m in for a day of pain with this!!!

So — a couple more strange dreams to go down in my dream history books! 

Movie Review – Everybody’s Fine

Dec6

How often to we keep the truth from people to avoid talking about the “bad” things or to avoid causing stress or worry to the people in our lives?  How often do we do that to the very people we probably should be sharing the “bad” with because they should know and are likely to be in a position and willing to help or, at the very least, provide much-needed support?  That’s what this movie is all about!  The things we hold back from the ones we love the most and how it impacts our lives!

Robert De Nero heads up a stellar cast as the widowed father of four – two boys and two girls.  The characters are:  Father, Frank Goode (De Nero); daughters Rosie (Drew Barrymore), Amy (Kate Beckinsale), and son Robert (Sam Rockwell).  Frank’s other son, David, is only referred to throughout the movie and appears in a couple brief scenes in Frank’s flashbacks of his children when they were small.  Frank labored hard all his life to provide for his family and is immensely proud of the dreams his children were able to accomplish because of his hard work and sacrifice – David, the well-known artist in NYC;  Amy, the successful advertising executive who owns her own business and has a loving family in Chicago;  Robert, the orchestra conductor and composer in Denver; and Rosie, the accomplished dancer in Las Vegas.  His wife was the mainstay of the family.  After her death, Frank decides he must take over the duty of holding the family together and watching over his grown children.  He plans a family barbeque weekend and excitedly prepares for his children to visit so they can all be around the same table again.  Then, one-by-one they cancel on him due to the busy lives they lead hundreds of miles from home.

So, Frank decides, against the advice of his doctor, to go to them!  He heads out on a journey across the country on trains and buses – first to NYC to surprise David, then on to Amy in Chicago, then Robert in Denver, and finally Rosie in Las Vegas.  Through it all, he discovers that the level of happiness and success that his wife and children conveyed to him over the years is not necessarily the reality of their lives.  He finds that the term “Everybody’s fine” has been a comforting tale they all chose to use to avoid worrying and, yes, disappointing him.  And the cover-up continues as each one manufactures excuses to not spend time with him so that he doesn’t discover the most recent tragedy plaguing the family in an attempt to not worry him until they have the whole story – at which time, it ends up being too late.

This all too common story of an American family spread across the country, all too busy with their own lives to take time to cherish each other, is told very poignantly.  The characters are believable and the acting is exceptional.  You very easily get caught up in their lives, their emotions, and their anguish as they uncomfortably lie to their father in an effort to protect him from the truth, as their mother always had.

Robert De Nero is superb as Frank Goode – did you expect any less from this amazing veteran actor?  Barrymore and Beckinsale are perfect in their respective roles.  The only thing that kept bothering me was Sam Rockwell as Robert – he did a very good job in his role, but I couldn’t help but picture him as the sadistic ”Wild Bill” The Green Mile.  I had to shake off those thoughts several times to avoid the distraction from his current performance.  But, it wasn’t a role spoiler!

The only down side is that the story is a little bit of a “downer” – it is sad to see that the family has grown apart and feels they can’t be honest and confide in the father who did the best he could to provide a good future for them.  My heart went out to him and I found myself wanting to just reach out and hug him and keep him from feeling like he is an outsider in his own family.  But, as the story unfolds, it proves to be really heartwarming and a testament of the importance of family and the relationships within it!

Don’t worry – I went into a lot of detail, but there were no spoilers — all can be gathered from the trailers (click to watch a really good one) and the build up scenes in the movie.  It is what is in between and the eventual outcome that will grab you!

Again, the critics are hating this movie – they think it is too sappy, old-fashioned, and sentimental.  They find Frank to be nauseatingly naive about the world around him.  I found all this to be the endearing qualities of the movie.

Because of the down side mentioned, I feel I need to take some points off.  But, overall, I found the movie to be very touching and real – it grabbed my emotions and made sure I was engaged and involved.  I rate it a solid B++.  I do recommend you see it, even if only to use it as a reminder to reach out to those you love and trust them with the truth – even if it is painful – they just might be the rock you need to provide an anchor in your life!