Like, Love, Don't Totally Hate???

Writer's Workshop-

Once again brought to you by the letter 'M' for Mama Kat




This week's writing assignment : 10 Things You Love About Fall

1) SCHOOL- for the kids.

I just love when they are gone all day and the house actually stays clean for a while- please note that a while is code for until the kids get home with their wet, leafy-soled shoes and backpacks over-burdened with text books and binders and hoodies that smell faintly of wet dog, or teen boy... same difference... that will in mere moments be strewn hither and yon throughout the house as soon as their feet cross the threshold.

2) FOOTBALL- no explanation needed

3) It's NOT Winter

The sun is still shining when I go to work AND when I come home keeping up the appearance of summer days not so long gone by... easing me, nudging me, gently into the coming season.


4) HALLOWEEN!!!

Jack-o-lanterns, Scarecrows, ghouls and witches... my family fits right in!
And my favorite holiday of the year. No anti-climatic let-downs, grumpy relatives barely tolerating the other's existence, no finger-pointing or misguided clumsy attempts to make the warring factions declare a cease fire long enough for a 'Family' dinner... just kids dressing up, play-acting, laughing and having fun... pure unadulterated JOY shining out for all the world to enjoy.

5) Sweaters-

soft and fluffy, warm and fuzzy, haute couture or rough-n-ready campout gear... they just make everything better.

6) Colorful leaves-

reds, oranges, yellows and browns mingle in a dance as old as time as they flutter silently, wimsically, landing as softly as a hushed breath at my feet.

7) & 8) SmartGirl and SIX's birthdays

October 1st SmartGirl will be 26... with her college degree in hand, part-time student aide position at the local elementary school and a burning desire to find a 'REAL' job. One using her degree, getting paid enough to move out and pay her own way in the world... She wants nothing more than to be a Grown-Up... me too!

November 3rd will see the onset of SIX's 12th year. A year sure to be filled with teen angst and anquish... unless his grades don't improve rapidly... in which case he may find that his 12th year will be the "Year of Incarceration"... one in which he is doomed to spend his spare time staring at the walls of his bedroom, reading books (I know, a fate worse than death!) and doing "Extra Credit" homework...

This list is supposed to be 10 Things I love about Fall... but in actuality, I don't really LIKE Fall...

October is my favorite month, but only because if the warm and sunny days with a hint of freshly mowed grass and over-turned soil wafting thru the trees from the farm around the corner; the deer, with felted mini-antlers that eat the berries off the bushes in the yard; the last of the hummingbirds and butterflies that boldly come right up to me as I sit out back enjoying the sights and scents of the woods, the garden, the world around me that I call HOME.

Seconded by May with it's emerging greens, tender yellows and understated pinks and reds of the newly budded trees, flowers and bushes; the quiet of the mornings broken only by the staccato twittering and chittering of mated birds calling to one another from the nest; the call of tree frogs all day AND all night...

which leads into the months of June, July and August... resplendent in all their Summer Glory of color and sound and scent...

As each month takes it turn on the calendar, so each Season has it's place in our lives... And every Season has something to Love... all you have to do is look.

The Turtle and the Hare... minus the Hare

Life lessons should be so easy to learn.

Baby Turtles crawl across the blazing hot sand, scorching their new little flippers, to reach the safety and respite of the ocean's water.

Stop to dilly-dally along the way and...

Lunch for an albatross!

Timing is everything.

NEW TV LINE UP... or maybe it's the firing squad line up... decision pending

Fall's new shows started last week.

I noticed some of the old faves are gone, replaced by things like The Event and Lone Star and $#*! My Dad Saysand oh, you know the one with that guy who does that thing and solves all the crimes in the world....?



Yeah, sometimes that's how I feel about the land of TV.

It's either all funny and fluff.
Or it's serious death and gruesomer death.

Don't get me wrong.
I like crime drama as much as the next gal... but do we need to see cadavers on EVERY channel?

And comedy?
Every one needs some comic relief in their lives. Without it I am sure we'd all implode.

But what's wrong with things that give you some information while entertaining you?

I know, I know. That's what Cable Channels are for.

Come on network TV...
More Extreme Make-Over Home Edition shows would be a welcome change of pace... and think of the lessons the young of the world would learn by watching benevolence and charity and random acts of kindness in progress!


photo courtesy of Seattlepi blogs

Make A Friend Monday... OKay Make As Many As You Want!

1) If you could magically change one thing about your body, what would it be?
one thing??? I would like to be taller please... is my Genie a cheapskate that I only get one magic wish thingy?

2) What is your best physical feature?

Oh that's easy, er, it used to be easy. I loved my shoulders. I know, crazy, but
they were attractive. Now... hmmm? I got it... My eyes! They're blue, except
when they're green or red, but the red never lasts long, really!

3) Do you weigh yourself daily? Hourly? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Never?

If I say I don't have to weigh myself because I'm so utterly perfect, you'll believe me, right?
Really, once a week. Or 2 or 3, but that's it, really. Unless I'm feeling like I
could eat an antelope, then I check to see how much I have lost since I am so
obviously starving,

4) Do you workout regularly? If so, how does if affect you from day to day?

A workout workout? No. But I walk a couple times a week (usually 2-3) for 4-6
miles, again depending on the day and time and planetary alignment. I feel much
better and more energy when I get out and walk or swim or garden ... moving
around outside in the sunshine and fresh air just puts me in a great mood!

5) What is the healthiest thing you do for yourself on a regular basis?

I drink- almost every day- 3-4 quarts of water/crystal light. It makes me feel better and keeps me hydrated which is always a good thing.

6) If you could look like a celebrity, who would you choose to look like?

I don't want to look like her, but I wouldn't turn down her body when she's done
with it- and don't laugh - Cher. I mean she's a hundred and her body is still
holding up, and I do mean up, in all the right places. That's quality workmanship
and I figure since it's already paid for.... One body transplant to go please!

7) What do you do to make yourself feel pretty/handsome?

I get dressed? No, that's not true. I put on moisturizer, mascara and lip tint.
Then I get dressed. If I have time, I use the buffer on my nails with the dead sea
salt lotion-y stuff. Really. That's it.

8) What are you most attracted to in the opposite sex?

Well, I like opposite sex just as much as I like it face to face. It's just
harder when you're turned opposite way around, but it could be interesting, yes?

9) Have you ever avoided situations because you didn't want people to see your body
shape?

What a silly question, for a girl that is... a big YES Sirree!

10) How do you feel about your overall appearance?

Not bad. Could stand to lose more weight but if I grew 3 inches I'd be fine. I don't hate my body or my appearance, as long as I don't have to look in a mirror or try on new clothes.

I'm a work in progress and I'm no where near done yet:)

Tragedy...When the feelings gone and you can't go on...

title song and lyrics by The BeeGees

Mama Kat's Weekly Writing assignment:

describe a tragedy you didn't expect to be as deeply affect by as you are



First one must identify with what one would consider a TRAGEDY.

Strictly speaking the definition is: an event resulting in great loss and misfortune.

However, another type of TRAGEDY is: a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow

Personal tragedies aside, because they are PERSONAL...

Lyrical or literary tragedies seem to get to me more than the actual physical, IRL (in real life) kind.

I think it is because of my job. I work with special needs children. Many of whom are very ill, and/or have very short life expectancies.

Before that, I worked in LTC (long term care-read Nursing Homes). My patients were the Alzheimer's and the ones with serious health issues like dialysis, coma or near-coma patients requiring hawk-like attention to detail to maintain their health and a quality of life worth having.

I believe that living with the daily occurrences of death and near-death experiences I have grown immune, for lack of a better word, to the personal tragedies one hears of on the news or reads about in the Newspaper - online of course as the newspaper stopped being printed last year!

Speaking of a tragedy!

Perhaps the tragic end of Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, is as emotional as I have gotten over anything in a long time.
Well, the oil spill in the Gulf was a close second...

I started watching The Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet after the birth of TeenBoy. I would sit in bed with him and watch Steve and his new bride, Terry, head off into the wilds of Australia.

A place I have always been in awe of, and wanted to see for myself.

TeenBoy and I would snuggle together and watch Ole Steve-O 'til one of us, usually ME, fell asleep.
When TeenBoy was 17 months old BratChild was born and into the routine she came.
Then came SIX, and about the same time, Bindy Sue... the Mini-me of the Crocodile Hunter.

My oldest children enjoyed the show, but the younger ones?
They were raised with Steve and Terry. They loved watching him explore jungles and oceans and deserts. They learned more about the animals and reptiles a world away from that entertaining and intelligent man and his equally wonderful wife than any one can imagine!

With SIX being about the same age as The Crocodile Hunter's first child, and Steve and Terry being similar in age to myself and HeMan Hubby... an emotional connection was forged- on my end entirely, but real none the less.

I liken it to the way people watch Soap Operas and BELIEVE the characters are REAL people living their lives on TV...
only I knew these people were really real and were really living at least part of their lives on TV. The other part of their lives was their own, but I felt like I understood some of what that part, the part not shown on TV, was like.

They ran an animal zoo and rescued wildlife all over the world ... I had an aviary full of parrot species and was raising 6 children working full time nights with special needs kids... not too dissimilar, right?
Okay, not the same at all but... I understood being busy and over-extended and exhausted daily.

So, his death took me by surprise. Okay, that's putting it mildly.
It floored me. I thought of his wife and daughter, left to carry on his DREAM. Of his new son, who would never have any real memories or knowledge of the man who was bigger than life to so many creatures great and small.

I was so affected that I wrote an email to the family expressing my sorrow for their loss. And let them know how much the world would miss him.
I doubt The Crocodile Hunter Family read the email... but if perhaps someone did, I hoped that it would bring some measure of comfort, as it did for me to write it.

Kind of the way writing the blog gives me comfort, and sometimes even, little snippets of solitude to cultivate my sanity when it's dangerously close to being all used up.

Tragedy is... the death of a man who saw more than what was in front of his eyes... and had the courage to dream a dream AND make it come true... dying from a silly thing like a freakish stab to the chest from the tail of a stingray.

If THEY say so... it must be true!

I saw on TV the other night, while flipping the channels, looking for something to watch while I took my nap before work, one of those shows with the Ticker Tape thingy running across the bottom with the stock exchange numbers on it.
I have NO IDEA what channel it was, and only stopped on it because these words were at the top left side of the screen in LARGE BOLD print so I could not miss them...

The Recession is Over!

I saw that and WOWSERS! I thought to myself, good thing they're telling us or else we, the little people, might not have known about it for a while yet!

I had to stop and listen to the analyst who was analyzing the stock market and giving his reasoning for declaring the recession over.

It went something like this:

Obama's stimulus didn't do it.
Financial help for the banking system didn't do it.
Refinancing the National Debt... again... didn't do it.

Corporate America has done it!
By tightening their belts and budgeting.
By re-investing in their companies and their employees.
By increasing productivity while reducing waste and wastefulness.
Corporate America has turned the tide and although Americans are not spending like they were 18 months ago... and the housing market is the worst it's been in 20-30 years... and unemployment is in the double digits nationwide....
Corporate CEO's and head honchos are the reason the recession is over.

We just don't know it.
Or see it.

Yet...
according to Corporate America.

Top Ten Tuesday ! (echo) tuesday tuesday tuesday....

My Top 10 for today is TV shows.

I came of age in the 80's... so that makes me a child of the 70's and 80's, right?
Most of the TV shows I can remember watching- Saturday morning cartoons NOT included- are from the mid-70's to now so... you may need to google a few, or at least ask your big brother or sister what the heck I'm talking about, but here goes!

10) MASH/ Tru Calling ( it's a tie)
09) MacGyver / Joan of Arcadia (it's another tie)
08) Quincy
07) Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
06) NCIS (and NCIS LA)
05) Ghost Hunters ( and GHI)
04) Bones
03) Masterpiece Mystery/ Mystery ( The PBS series since the 70's)
02) Murder She Wrote
01) Doctor Who ( all of them since the 70's!)