Please note that this blog post is NOT titled, "Off With the Top of My Head."
Don’t you hate it when you send someone a great card that they love and tell you they love it but you can’t remember which card you sent?
Dear Kohl’s – stop being so insecure. Why else would you ask me to go on-line and complete a survey EVERY TIME I BUY SOMETHING (and that’s a lot of times…)? If you are asking me if I still love you, I do, but if you keep asking, I might love you a little bit less.
Who would have thought we would have temps in the 60s in December? I’m feeling sad that I sold my convertible, because it is top-down weather, baby!
Glitter on any kind of card should be illegal. It looks nice but it gets everywhere. Just my two cents.
I don’t know much about construction, but I cannot figure out the point of a backhoe going past my house repeatedly every day, moving small amounts of dirt and seemingly accomplishing nothing. Big boys on big toys, it seems to me.
One of the chores I really hate to do is folding sheets. I’m not good at it, either. However, I will fold the pillowcases precisely, grateful that with today’s fabrics I don’t have to dampen them using a water-filled, sprinkle-topped Coke bottle and roll them up in the refrigerator until they can be ironed. Who remembers doing (or having your mother) that?
If something “goes without saying,” why does the person speaking go ahead and say it anyway?
I’ve reached the age that when my friends and I get together, no one wants to drive at night. No one sees that well anymore. And when we watch TV, everyone hits the “Back” button because we don’t catch every word of the dialog. Are they speaking too fast? Is the volume too low? My BFF has a house rule: She and her husband will replay the scene three times. If they don’t get the lines within those three chances, they simply move on.
Speaking of TV, I find that I hardly watch anything live anymore. I record programs on the DVR so I can skip commercials, or I watch them “on demand” or catch the highlights on-line. I even delay watching shows for 20-30 minutes so I can watch the recording and skip the ads or slow parts. And my DVR records programs it thinks I will want to see. This service means that I can watch stuff I missed even if I didn’t know I was missing it. Truly incredible. Gone are the days when we watched channels 2-4-5-7-9-11-13 in black and white and changed the channel with a pair of pliers!
There is a restaurant between Hillsborough and Princeton that has had multiple iterations. Most recently, it was “Tusk,” a fusion place that lasted just a few years. It has been closed now for quite some time, yet every night the sign out front is lit and there is some lighting inside. I cannot figure out 1) why this restaurant location continues to fail; and 2) who is paying the lighting bill?
I love Sinatra and I have been listening to his Sirius station more frequently of late since it is his 100th birthday. But please, with the extensive Sinatra library, can’t they play Frank actually singing rather than playing Perry Como, Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett? Not that I don’t like the other artists, but it would be like going to a Renoir museum and seeing Monet paintings. Frank is on about half the time in my unscientific survey.
As you probably know by now, I am a dedicated movie enthusiast. I have the uncanny knack of knowing in the first 30 seconds of a preview whether or not I would like a movie. Nearly anything that includes things getting blown up, people being killed or extensive running around and shooting gets an immediate thumbs down from me. And that’s why you’ll typically find me at the Old Folks Movies (Montgomery Cinema), where they play the less-commercial movies, foreign films and documentaries. Besides, I like bringing down the average age there.
Someone (thank you, Colleen) sent me an article recently about the prevalence of Yiddish words in our English/American vocabulary, and it made me realize how many of them I know and use. When I was growing up, if my parents wanted to talk about something that they did not want me to understand, they spoke Yiddish, which had been spoken in their homes when they were growing up. But I soon figured out some of the words – especially since my mother would use Yiddish expressions frequently. She used phrases like “meshugener hunt” (crazy dog), or, when she was being loving, she would call me “shana punim” (pretty face). There are a few Yiddish words that cannot be replicated in English. My sister often has a troubled look on her face that can only be described by “tsutrugen.” If you have troubles that lead to the tsutrugen face, you have “tsuris,” and when you are totally and completed lost, you are “ferblunget.” You can be all choked up, as in “farklempt.” Crappy clothes are “schmattas,” and everyone knows a “schmuck” or two. There’s “chutzpah” (nerve or gall), klutz (someone who is clumsy) and we should all aspire to be a “mensch” (genuinely good person). My mother started many conversations with her BFF with one word: “Nu?” meaning, in today’s vernacular, “Whassup?” And sometimes things just get all “fercockt,” which I’ll let you figure out.
Somehow, some way, I started getting Vanity Fair magazine again after a very long time. I swear I don’t remember subscribing, especially since I have been cancelling my magazines, but maybe, just maybe, I sent in the card because the offer was too good to pass up. All I know is that they have sent me three issues in 4 weeks, and I am starting to feel like Lucy in the candy factory. Not being able to keep up with reading all those long (and, admittedly, interesting) stories is why I discontinued the subscription in the first place. Did I forget that?
Do you ever call someone and while waiting for them to answer the phone, you forget whom you called and why?
I’ve been concerned about news reports showing robbers snatching boxes delivered to people’s porches. Even though I live in a community with a gatehouse, there are still plenty of people accessing this development who could grab something outside my front door. So today I decided to track a package containing my Christmas cards from Shutterfly. I’m sure my nephew – who works for Amazon and who majored in Supply Chain Management – could explain to me the circuitous route taken by this order. So far, it has seen the light of day in Charlotte, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Laurel, Maryland; Tinton Falls, NJ, and Bound Brook, NJ, all on its way to my local (Franklin) post office. By the time the cards arrive at my house (and presuming they are not snatched off my porch), they will be too exhausted to undertake their next assignment – getting to the homes of my friends!
Recently I attended the funeral for one of our outstanding Douglass women and leaders, Evelyn Field ’49. Among the speakers was her cousin, who read a letter he had written to her when she entered hospice care. He expressed his gratitude to her for being such an outstanding role model in word and deed, for always encouraging education and for her devotion to family and community. His poignant message made me think of the many funerals and even retirement parties I have attended where people learn about the accomplishments of the deceased or the retiree in such glowing terms, and I always wonder: Did this person KNOW how his/her family/friends/co-workers felt? Were these feelings expressed during his/her lifetime/career? The letter was so moving, and I was struck by the fact that he shared his feelings with his cousin so she would know what she meant to him while it mattered to her. So today’s lesson – without getting too maudlin – is to remember to express our appreciation, admiration and adulation to those who have had a profound impact on us while we still can. A few well-chosen words of gratitude and love said TO the person is better than saying them ABOUT the person. Drops mic, leaves stage. Much love to all.
No comments:
Post a Comment