coupla things that matter.

• chocolate-chocolate chip zucchini cake. this is wonderful. not because it's delicious (it is) but because it's. a. vegetable.
• grilling bbq ribs during the summer and freezing some for the fall. and since yesterday was the first full day of fall, guess what i'm having for dinner tonight?
• when somebody mows the grass, dammit.
• wine with a screw cap that tastes good. (yeah.....there are a few.)
• the wine tastes good, not the screw cap! you english majors, you!
• when the pope clarifies what he means and says no, if you thought i meant abortion is okay, i don't. it's not.

when the pope clarifies what he means and says no, if you thought i meant abortion is okay, i don't.

it's not.

my boyfriend

charlie and olivia take turns spending the night with me on a friday night. i pick him/her up after work on friday, we do something(s) fun together that evening and we do something(s) fun together the next morning. then lunch, and then back home. it's a nice, quiet time for just the two of us - to bond, to get to know each other better, and just to hang and have fun. i have come to relish these times together - and i plan to extend it to each of the triplets, too.........as soon as i get the energy.   :)

this past friday was charlie's turn and we went to the pumpkin patch. there's a pumpkin patch about 10 miles from their house which is THEE best pumpkin patch in the whole u.s. of a. if we hadn't been so busy having fun, i would have taken pictures. sorry. use your imagination. (imagination? what's that? is that anything like playing outside till it gets dark? i've heard of such things.......)

after the pumpkin patch, we got dinner. or, what passes for dinner if you're 4-years old........"cheesy roll-ups" from taco bell. (they really aren't half-bad. well, yeah they are.)  :)

then bath, then t.v., then candy, then candy, then popcorn, then candy.

then bed. with the new halloween night light he got at the pumpkin patch.


the next day, we had pancakes on a stick (true story), dunked in syrup (really true story). then target for a treat or two, then the library, then mcdonald's, then home. happy, satisfied, and a little fatter.


and a lot more in love.

bill. i mean......my dad. i mean.....bill. i mean, sigh.

i attended a professional continuing education seminar in dayton, ohio yesterday and among the attendees was an 87-year old adorable man. 87!

as luck would have it, i ended up sitting next to him at lunch. it was all i could do not to hug him to pieces. he was a.dor.a.ble. if it wouldn't have been impossibly freudian, i would've asked him out!

he explained to those of us at the table that he was at the seminar for the same reason all the rest of us were at the seminar -  to keep his license current. he said, "you never know when i might have to go back to work for some reason - maybe my wife might die -  and i might need my psychology license to fall back on."

i love this man.

he raised his hand probably 6 times during the seminar. he asked the kind of questions that andy and barney might have asked - basic, non-fancy schmancy, regular old questions. all of the 30-somethings in the room asked questions with multi-syllabic words from here to eternity.

i love this man.


at one point during the afternoon, i looked over at him - at his profile - and was startled to realize that he looks just. like. my. dad. just like him. identical. i. den. ti. cal.


it may be freudian.......


but i love him.


:)

howdy, neighbor.

what's wrong with the world is, nobody borrows a cup of sugar anymore.


borrowing a cup of sugar means several things, all of them good. first of all, it means you're probably baking.

secondly, it means you trust the person you're borrowing the sugar from. heck, never mind trusting her, it means you know her - including, of course, her name. halfa what's wrong with the world -  right off the bat is -  nobody knows their neighbors anymore.


(i know my neighbors - sort of. i know their names which, as established above, makes me a minority right there.

i know a little bit about -  and in some cases a moderate bit amount about -  all of them. that's not bad, considering i've only lived here 3 months.)


another thing that borrowing sugar means is, you're intending to reciprocate. next time lisa (that's my next-door neighbor; see? told ya i knew her name)......next time lisa needs something, whether it's sugar or a screwdriver or a lift into town, i'll be there for her. 


the other thing that's wrong with the world is - nobody ever needs a "lift into town" anymore.



care for a brownie?

get rid of your possessions.

i moved into my new office today.

one wall - the biggest one - is made of stone. another wall is entirely, floor to ceiling, glass. it is the best office in the agency. it is so good, it's even better than the ceo's.

when i worked at nationwide children's hospital, i had a nice office - one of the better ones. i had it for many years until one day, i got up from my desk, went into my boss's office (which wasn't as nice) and said, "i want to give my office to someone else. i've had it a long time and it's somebody else's turn to enjoy it."  

my boss didn't try to talk me out of it (i think she knew she couldn't), but she was floored. "you want to do what???????" she said.

"you heard me, " i said. "i want to give my office to someone else. let someone else enjoy it. it's your headache to figure out who."

i walked out of her office, turning long enough to see her jaw on her chest.

i will never forget how surprised she was. how shocked. and i will never forget my reaction to her reaction - it made me sad. it made me sad to think that someone would be so taken aback by another someone giving up a nice office to another deserving person. we shouldn't be surprised by that, i thought to myself. especially in an office full of social workers! 

but she was. we are.

today, when i moved into the nicest office in my current agency, i thought about the day i moved out of (one of the nicest) offices in my former agency. and i didn't see a disconnect.

what i saw, instead, was what Christ has been trying to tell us all along - that it is better to give than to receive. and that he who is last will be first.

and she who has sunlight streaming through one entire wall doesn't need to feel guilty about it.

and she who has sunlight streaming through one entire wall and doesn't need to feel guilty about it needs to hand it off to someone else some day.

i promise you,

i will.

is labor day your favorite holiday? it should be.

labor day is the rodney dangerfield of major american holidays. poor labor day.


labor day, like its summer companions, memorial day and the fourth of july, is strong on cookouts and picnics, but unlike its companions, there's no thrilling patriotism associated with it. when was the last time your heart beat fast on the first monday of september?

whereas memorial day means the beginning of summer and the fourth of july means we're right smack dab in the middle of it, labor day means it's over. and it's time to get back to........well........labor.

in many parts of the country, the grass is brown and burned up. the air is thick with humidity. everybody is eager to put on a sweatshirt but you can't - or else you'd.......well.......sweat.

no other holiday - major or otherwise - is associated with illness, but labor day is. back in the day, jerry lewis and his muscular dystrophy telethon was practically the centerpiece of the holiday. i haven't watched the telethon in years but i understand that it is a ghost of its former self.

poor labor day.

more communities have memorial day and fourth of july parades than they have labor day ones. nobody lets off firecrackers. even the potato salad seems kinda tired by now.

and to top it all off - everybody has to go back to work tomorrow.


no, labor day doesn't get much respect. but it should. when you think about it, labor day is where the rubber of life really meets the road. labor day is what life is all about.

it's the place between the high and the low places. it's ordinary. in other words, 

it's life. real life. and what a celebration that is.



now.......pass the potato salad.