mea culpa

My favorite season of the year is Fall. Something I didn't believe we had in Texas.

I take that back - we have fall...it started about a week ago - it's now December 17:p

'nough said - Merry Christmas:)

not feelin' it...be back soon

darn new-fangled gizmos!

This is for Staci, who amusingly blogged last month about "signs of the times". (I realize now that I never thanked her for not quantifying her "older gentleman" as being like...50!)

Anyhow, while stopped at a light an older gentleman in a beat-up Ford pick-up truck pulled up next to her, "wearing a red plaid flannel shirt, a cowboy hat, and had a scruffy white beard. He looked like he’d just gotten finished feeding the cows and had to run ‘into town’ for a few things"...her illusion was broken when he pulled out his blackberry and started texting away. As she said "Oldsters with gadgets and gizmos?!! It’s just not right."

And now I am wondering if she might have meant me also:o

My new gizmo is a Samsung Memoir and I am loving it. Got the camera figured out, e-mail is working way to well, got my web page up and running - I am connected; life is good. Mostly.

Embarassingly enough I apparently can't figure one of the most basic functions on the telephone - the call list! For a couple of weeks I have been calling back to friends, family and work asking if they had called - always receiving "no" as an answer. "But, my phone has you listed as calling." Still, "I/we didn't call."

Well last week I had a little time on my hands while hanging out in the hospital waiting room so, I played around with my phone. I know I shouldn't admit this; I should just let it pass and not let my ineptitude to work a phone be made public. But, life is way too serious and if we can't laugh at ourselves, we've got it all wrong...I discovered that the call list was listing ALL the calls on my phone - incoming, outgoing, missed. So, I kept "returning" calls to people that I had just called!

Maybe there should be age appropriate markings on cell phone boxes - like toys have on them. Of course, if that were the case, I'd be carrying around a rotary (Staci is probably too young to know what that is!)

Heritage

Happy St. Patrick's Day

No Irish here but, I am married to "Pedro - the Irish boy"! Actually, Peter is a wee bit Irish and a lot of English. Myself...Hawaiian and Swedish. Better yet...Hawaiian (mix of Japanese and Filipino - maybe Samoan) and Swedish raised in an English and Scottish family (can also add German, Irish, Puerto Rican, Danish...my brothers and I were adopted)!

True heritage holidays for me:
Kuhio Day - March 26...celebrating some Hawaiian prince that did something significant for Hawaii;
Lei Day - (keep it clean!);
Swedish National Day - June 6...liberation of Sweden (like, from where?);
Midsommer...dancing around maypoles in Sweden...ummm - macarena anyone?;
Kamehameha Day - June 11...just like saying this one;
Admissions Day - 3rd Friday in August...easy to figure this one out but if you can't here's a hint - Hawaii is the 50th one;
St. Lucia Day...as are most saint stories, this one is a bit disturbing - she dies after being stabbed by an unrequited love;
Christmas Eve...boy, did my parents get this one wrong. We usually celebrated with oyster stew. The Swedes on the other hand have lutfisk, meatballs, Jannsons frestelse - a potato casserole made with anchovies, onions and cream and rice pudding (with a hidden lucky almond - woo hoo!).

So, is it any wonder that I celebrate St. Patrick's Day with the Irish?

Always remember to forget
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.

Aloha.

I'll take my mulligan now, please!

My hair is missing!!!

Actually, I know where most of it is - and it's not on my head anymore:( It was totally unexpected - a misunderstanding, a miscommunication and now...

a mishap!

We put sooooo much trust in our hair stylists. And I love mine. She gave me a great haircut - just not the one I wanted.

When we were little kids we got "do-overs" or, at least, we took them; erasers - great invention that wipes out mistakes; even standardized testing gives one a bazillion chances at getting it right; and on the links we're given a mulligan for an errant shot - I'm calling a mulligan now - PLEASE!

Mush!

To Staci and Shanda:

I promise I sat down today to blog and sure enough, I got sidetracked!!!

The Iditarod re-start was today and I was going to write about how amusing I thought it was that there are NO Texans entered in the race (go figure!). Texans are everywhere. Yet, not ONE is in the race - do you think it's a snub because Texans don't want to acknowledge that something is bigger than Texas - like ALASKA?

I never have embraced that "everything is bigger in Texas" adage...

Montana definitely has a bigger sky - truly. I've seen it and it's on their license plates, "Big Sky Country" (who can argue?).

I won't even begin to list the states that have bigger mountains - in other states they consider Texas "mountains" foothills, if they would consider them at all.

Bigger people? Well, Houston is one of the most obese cities in America but, I don't think that was part of the "everything's bigger in Texas" momentum.

They do drive big cars down here, are known for their big oil money and have big hair. (Everybody had big hair in the 80's - we were living New Hampshire and I was working in Billerica and THEY had big hair - it's just that it's 2009 and Dallasites and Houstonians STILL have big hair!)

But, I'm rambling. I was...oh yes - I was in the biggest state in the Union. Alaska and the Iditarod. For the next 10+ days, I will be a fan, admirer, supporter - a "groupie"! And that's what happened today. I sat down at the computer to blog and started perusing everything Iditarod...it's also the biggest dog sled race in the world.

I think I have a lung problem...

actually, I don't but, hear me out. I have just watched a special on a travel channel about the great lodges of the Rocky Mountains and now melancholy has set in...

I am most at peace in the mountains - even if I am screaming down the side of one, out of control, going 40 miles an hour. I do not prefer any specific mountains - I am pretty happy in any mountain range. But, let me emphasize the word "MOUNTAIN" - I'm talking rocky, snow-covered (or at least snow-topped!), 10,000+ feet mountains.

There's a bumper sticker that reads "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could" - that's how I feel about the mountains. I wasn't born in the mountains (I was born in San Francisco) and my family moved to Maryland and Kansas (sans mountains) until we finally ended up in Washington and surrounded by the Cascades and Olympics - at that is my home. And I miss it.

Now, before I drift even further from my original statement, I will explain why I think I have a lung condition. In the program, they pointed out that at the turn of the century (19th), people that had lung conditions traveled to the mountains because it was felt that the mountain air was healing. So...again...

"I think I have a lung condition."

"mission impossible"???

All the hype and buzz about movies at this time of year and I realize that the only Oscar nominated movies I had seen before this weekend are "The Dark Knight", "WALL-E", and "Iron Man" - not exactly the pinnacle of the list!

So, this is movie weekend in the Drapes family and I can now add to the list "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Slumdog Millionaire". (We also went to "Taken" - not on the Oscar list but, good!)

I am a little tired of popcorn and soda so tomorrow may be movie day at home with "Changeling" or "Rachel Getting Married"...

though Olivia would really like to see "He's Just Not That Into You" or "New in Town" - see how I get side-tracked:}

Still on my list: "Frost/Nixon", "Milk", "Doubt", "Rachel Getting Married", "Changeling", "The Reader"

life's lessons

Empathy, compassion, commiseration - that's what I feel when my kids/husband are sick...for about 24 hours. I make no excuses or apologies. They know that they have approximately one day of my caretaking and then they better be self-sufficient. I've always admitted that I am the worst nurse. I don't think I ever even listed "doctor" or "nurse" as "what I wanted to be when I grew up" - I knew I would fail miserably in the compassion arena.

So, imagine my dismay now...

not feeling good

almost to the 24 hour mark and it's getting worse:(

nobody's around....

go figure!

"make new friends"...

Cookie season is upon us and I am seeing scouts everywhere...That, coupled with my weekend away in Fredericksburg, reminds me of the Girl Scout song that states to "make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold".

I can remember a few years ago I told a very dear friend of mine that I really didn't want to make new friends. I wasn't being exclusive, sectarian or snobbish...I was probably being lazy. I was happy with my circle of friends. Parameters set. Status quo.

There's been a shift - a metamorphosis. Over the past year my circle has grown...and, I consider myself lucky for that.

I am feeling a bit remorseful for being lazy and content. So, even though cookie season may come and go, I hope the silver and gold jingle stays with me because I'm really enjoying this copious circle.

(Now, to just keep my derriere from expanding during cookie season!!!)

custom made idiot

Instead of naming my blog "custom made Drapes", should've gone with "custom made Idiot" - after I forgot my password and it took me five days to re-set! Maybe this neoteric journaling is not for me!

Anyhow, I'm back in and ready to go.

Now, just something to write about -
Back soon!

Juanita

I have been inspired. I have been inspired to write, though I really don't know if writing is "my thing". But, my friend writes a thoroughly enjoyable blog and she has motivated me to begin my own. And she must write a damn good blog as I know two other friends who have also taken the leap after reading her daily online stories.

So, I've been mulling the idea over for a couple of weeks now and topics to write about are constantly popping in to my head...even the mundane seems like something to tackle. Of course at my age, I just need to find a way to remember them'-)

My girls - and even Pedro - are probably thinking that they will regret this as I am sure I will be blogging about them. Truly - do you think I could embarass them (the girls, not Peter) anymore than their Facebook entries - I think not!!! Today is my fair warning...tomorrow, if I remember, I begin!

Thanks Juanita.