I remember at the age of 10, finally, being deemed old enough to trick or treat with my friends and brother, all by ourselves! I remember the beautiful California sunsets setting the skies ablaze with deep hues of gold, orange, red and purple, waiting for the word that it was dark enough for us to go! The air was crisp and pungent with the smell of bonfires, and I would wheeze with excitement, as we scurried a block east to that first house at the end of the block. Not the bulkiness of my jacket and jeans with the store bought, brightly colored vinyl , sweaty, Yogi Bear costume, nor the plastic mask, with eye holes that didn't quite match, a deterrent to that one magical evening when with loose abandon we could run freely through the neighborhood, laughing, screaming trick or treat, singing Halloween songs and collecting candy all the while.
I remember the old lady at the top of the hill, she gave out whole Hershey bars! There were Sky Bars, Bit O'Honey, Good and Plenty, Pixie Stix, Bazooka Bubble Gum, Kisses, Jawbreakers, Salt Water Taffy in every flavor imaginable, Cherry Bombs & Lemondheads! Our pillowcases were stuffed with sugary, stomach-turning, tooth decaying, delectable delights!
Of, course there were the Moriarty's across the street, they gave out apples. Not very popular with the kids, until the next day when Patty's mom would gather all the caramels out of everyone's bags and melt them for dipping our apples!
Those were fun and innocent times. Tomorrow the grandkids will stop in with their parents. We will have some potato soup, decorate Halloween sugar cookies, dip apples, have treats, snap pictures and then they will go off to another set of Grandparents for treats and pictures. It is sad that they will never know the same independence and fun that we enjoyed, but at least there will be the dressing up and treats, and laughter with different memories of Halloween spent with loved ones.
Here's to a Happy and Safe Halloween...to the old, wonderful and warm memories of Halloween's past...and to new traditions in a different world from days gone by!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Here's to you, Stephen King!
I was told that Stephen King, the author, exercises his writing skills every day. He sits down at his keyboard and just starts typing whatever comes to his mind. He writes a minimum of 1500 words. and although most of the stuff ends up in the cirucular file, Mr. King finds that eventually stuff of real worth begins to surface.
So in honor of Stephen King, my scribblings will be about scaring people. I must admit that most of Stephen King's writings are way too scary for me, which is rather odd when you consider the fact that I grew up with a dad that loved to jump out from around corners and scare the crap out of me. He and my father-in-law continued this awful legacy with my kids. And then my Stephanie loved it so much that she would regularly terrorize our family.
Stephanie was pretty fearless, too! Unlike other girls her age, she LOVED spiders, bugs, slime, the dark, and monster faces. She had the patience of Job when it came to plotting out and waiting for her next victim. One time she must have laid in wait for at least 2 hours in the bathtub, an hour + under a bed, the broom closet, in the dryer, in the hamper under dirty clothes, and the list goes on. Oh, I chuckle now, but then?! Not so much!
Eventually the rest of our family united in trying to figure out ways to get Stephanie. We failed miserably! She had this uncanny sense of awareness. Stephanie just knew when we were plotting something and inevitably our plot would backfire only to have her scare us!
But we did have a few successes. One day I decided that our game closet needed to be cleaned out and reorganized. I enlisted the help of all my kids and everyone was pretty good to help out, everyone except Steph. Now, that same year we had a mice problem, it was pretty bad. The mice would actually come out and wave to us. It took us well over a month to get rid of them, hence the cleaning of the game closet.
Anyways, the crammed game closet was about 4 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 8 ft tall. It was located at the head of the central hallway which was only about 3 wide and about 12 feet long. Once we began, the hallway quickly became littered with bags filled with broken games and missing pieces, stacks of puzzles, games and toys. After several hours, we were nearing completion of this daunting task, when one of the girls complained that Stephanie had been no help at all. The youngest sibling suggested that we should get Stephanie by scaring her. We plotted and schemed, then preying on the fact that Stephanie was fearless to most anything, we called her to the closet, We told her that we had found a nest of baby mice and that we wanted her get rid of it. Gallantly, Steph rushed to the rescue, wiggling and jamming herself in the darkest part of the closet to retrieve the 'mice.' And then, I let out my loudest, most shrillest blood curdling scream, "Aaaaahhhhhhhh, it's a RAT!!!!"
In less than a nano second, Stephanie was out of the closet and in one leap that would have set a world's long jump record, she was down the hall screaming at the top of her lungs! The girls and I were laughing so hard that our sides hurt and tears streamed down our faces! High fives were exchanged as Stephanie returned with a sheepish smile on her face.
Stephanie's love for scaring people was not limited to our family. I'm talking anyone, and I mean anyone, that set foot in our home for any length of time was fair game for Steph, including my husband's foreman.
One time Lorenzo returned from Mexico with a stuffed Iguana. I don't mean like a cute plush stuffed animal, I'm talking the real thing...a full sized Iguana that had been to a taxidermist and was about 3 1/2 feet long from head to tail. He had bought it for her as a 'gift.' Now, Stephanie had a pet iguana, named Freddie, as in Freddie Kruger from the horror fillms. It was quite the contrast to see this cute little dark haired, freckled face, 10 year old girl carrying her beloved cool, green, scaly monster, which was a long as her 4 foot height. She loved Freddie and delighted in most people's knee jerk reaction of shock and fear.
As Stephanie arrived home from school, Lorenzo was waiting for her with this gosh awful stuffed iguana and told her he was sorry but that he had it with Freddie. Stephanie's eyes became as big as saucers and she took off screaming and running for the house in tears. The reaction really did ruin the joke, but when Stephanie came out with Fred things evened up pretty quickly!
I'm sure I'm not to my 1500 words but this has been fun, scribbling memories and practicing my craft. If you have a funny story about scaring someone, tell me about it. I guess I do enjoy watching someone get scared....BOO! Especially if it's not ME!
So in honor of Stephen King, my scribblings will be about scaring people. I must admit that most of Stephen King's writings are way too scary for me, which is rather odd when you consider the fact that I grew up with a dad that loved to jump out from around corners and scare the crap out of me. He and my father-in-law continued this awful legacy with my kids. And then my Stephanie loved it so much that she would regularly terrorize our family.
Stephanie was pretty fearless, too! Unlike other girls her age, she LOVED spiders, bugs, slime, the dark, and monster faces. She had the patience of Job when it came to plotting out and waiting for her next victim. One time she must have laid in wait for at least 2 hours in the bathtub, an hour + under a bed, the broom closet, in the dryer, in the hamper under dirty clothes, and the list goes on. Oh, I chuckle now, but then?! Not so much!
Eventually the rest of our family united in trying to figure out ways to get Stephanie. We failed miserably! She had this uncanny sense of awareness. Stephanie just knew when we were plotting something and inevitably our plot would backfire only to have her scare us!
But we did have a few successes. One day I decided that our game closet needed to be cleaned out and reorganized. I enlisted the help of all my kids and everyone was pretty good to help out, everyone except Steph. Now, that same year we had a mice problem, it was pretty bad. The mice would actually come out and wave to us. It took us well over a month to get rid of them, hence the cleaning of the game closet.
Anyways, the crammed game closet was about 4 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 8 ft tall. It was located at the head of the central hallway which was only about 3 wide and about 12 feet long. Once we began, the hallway quickly became littered with bags filled with broken games and missing pieces, stacks of puzzles, games and toys. After several hours, we were nearing completion of this daunting task, when one of the girls complained that Stephanie had been no help at all. The youngest sibling suggested that we should get Stephanie by scaring her. We plotted and schemed, then preying on the fact that Stephanie was fearless to most anything, we called her to the closet, We told her that we had found a nest of baby mice and that we wanted her get rid of it. Gallantly, Steph rushed to the rescue, wiggling and jamming herself in the darkest part of the closet to retrieve the 'mice.' And then, I let out my loudest, most shrillest blood curdling scream, "Aaaaahhhhhhhh, it's a RAT!!!!"
In less than a nano second, Stephanie was out of the closet and in one leap that would have set a world's long jump record, she was down the hall screaming at the top of her lungs! The girls and I were laughing so hard that our sides hurt and tears streamed down our faces! High fives were exchanged as Stephanie returned with a sheepish smile on her face.
Stephanie's love for scaring people was not limited to our family. I'm talking anyone, and I mean anyone, that set foot in our home for any length of time was fair game for Steph, including my husband's foreman.
One time Lorenzo returned from Mexico with a stuffed Iguana. I don't mean like a cute plush stuffed animal, I'm talking the real thing...a full sized Iguana that had been to a taxidermist and was about 3 1/2 feet long from head to tail. He had bought it for her as a 'gift.' Now, Stephanie had a pet iguana, named Freddie, as in Freddie Kruger from the horror fillms. It was quite the contrast to see this cute little dark haired, freckled face, 10 year old girl carrying her beloved cool, green, scaly monster, which was a long as her 4 foot height. She loved Freddie and delighted in most people's knee jerk reaction of shock and fear.
As Stephanie arrived home from school, Lorenzo was waiting for her with this gosh awful stuffed iguana and told her he was sorry but that he had it with Freddie. Stephanie's eyes became as big as saucers and she took off screaming and running for the house in tears. The reaction really did ruin the joke, but when Stephanie came out with Fred things evened up pretty quickly!
I'm sure I'm not to my 1500 words but this has been fun, scribbling memories and practicing my craft. If you have a funny story about scaring someone, tell me about it. I guess I do enjoy watching someone get scared....BOO! Especially if it's not ME!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Passwords, distractions, time & Joy...huh?!?!
So! I have been unable to blog because I couldn't remember my password, which is tied to my new email address, which I happened to forget as well. And the only reason that I forgot the new password is because someone hacked the password to my old email address . This necessitated the need for a new email address! And, YES! I Know, I KNOW!!!! I would have been happily blogging at my appointed time had I written the passwords. Sooooooo irritating because I had my little black book, in which I record all passwords, codes and other secret stuff, sitting right in front of me on my desk, WITH the new email and blogspot address SANS password . Mmmmm hmmm...you read it right, everthing but the passwords.
I didn't write the passwords because I was distracted. I was distracted by ringing phones, visiting grandkids, a home office in which I help run 2 businesses, my mom in law and dad in law, dirty dishes in the sink, an enormous dog that gets underfoot because he can't stand all the hectic activity, and a loving husband that relies on me to locate various sundry things that if were a snake would bite him! It's really pretty crazy...it's actually a typical day in my life.
It only makes me want to scream when I forget details that are vital to my sanity and time constraints. Time constraints...what a concept! I actually stopped wearing a watch years ago when I realized that time wasn't my own anyways! There were always interruptions and little emergencies. Then my daughter Stephanie passed away and I realized that not only was time not my own, but that every day was a gift, a very precious gift.
And though my life gets hectic and at times seems to run me to smithereens, there is joy amongst the chaos, deep love and appreciation for those I love, and laughter in the lunacy. And ultimately, isn't that what it's all about, finding joy in the journey.
I didn't write the passwords because I was distracted. I was distracted by ringing phones, visiting grandkids, a home office in which I help run 2 businesses, my mom in law and dad in law, dirty dishes in the sink, an enormous dog that gets underfoot because he can't stand all the hectic activity, and a loving husband that relies on me to locate various sundry things that if were a snake would bite him! It's really pretty crazy...it's actually a typical day in my life.
It only makes me want to scream when I forget details that are vital to my sanity and time constraints. Time constraints...what a concept! I actually stopped wearing a watch years ago when I realized that time wasn't my own anyways! There were always interruptions and little emergencies. Then my daughter Stephanie passed away and I realized that not only was time not my own, but that every day was a gift, a very precious gift.
And though my life gets hectic and at times seems to run me to smithereens, there is joy amongst the chaos, deep love and appreciation for those I love, and laughter in the lunacy. And ultimately, isn't that what it's all about, finding joy in the journey.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Let the scribbling begin!
Officially joining ANWA (American Night Writer's Association) has been the formal acknowledgement that deep within me lays an author in waiting. I have interests, I have thoughts, I have ideas just bubbling and exciting and impatient to burst forth and BLESS the lives of others! I am soooo excited that I quiver in anticipation of these books and articles that will flow from my mind to my fingertips and on to crisp white cottony pages that will in turn be picked up and read from my adoring readers! Enraptured they will be! Captivated, enthralled and mesmerized!
Then, like watermelon dropped on cement, Splat! It hits! Writer’s Block, the temporary inability to write. Sadly, I have found that that ‘temporary inability to write’ is caused by anything from lack of time to stinkin’ thinkin’!
Sometimes the urge to write comes at the most inopportune time like while I’m cleaning the kitchen after a big family dinner or while I’m in a long line at the bank or doing the much neglected yard work after a long hot summer. The inspiration to write seems to come when I’m engaged in mindless but necessary work that just can’t wait.
And how about stinkin’ thinkin’! You know! “I don’t know where to begin. That adjective doesn’t truly define the situation. My kitchen is disgusting. I can’t do this. I suck at this! Yikes, fragment sentence!” You know what I’m talking about; stinkin’ thinkin’ that causes paralysis by over- analysis, excuses and self-pity!
So, what to do?! Today is a new day and so I have given myself permission to set a time for writing. That time is as vital as brushing my teeth! I have taken to keeping a notepad convenient to me at all times. And as for stinkin’ thinkin’, I wouldn’t talk that way to a friend! So why should I talk to myself in that manner!?! Instead, my thoughts will go, “ I will have so and so read this. This is a work in progress. If Heavenly Father can help Nephi build a boat, I can write a paragraph…”
And that final thought brings me to the most important…when in doubt, Pray. After all, we are His daughters and He has given us talents to develop, nurture and grow. Heavenly Father desires to help, inspire and strengthen us. It is merely there for the asking. Remember to pray, pray for help, guidance and inspiration….and then write on!
Then, like watermelon dropped on cement, Splat! It hits! Writer’s Block, the temporary inability to write. Sadly, I have found that that ‘temporary inability to write’ is caused by anything from lack of time to stinkin’ thinkin’!
Sometimes the urge to write comes at the most inopportune time like while I’m cleaning the kitchen after a big family dinner or while I’m in a long line at the bank or doing the much neglected yard work after a long hot summer. The inspiration to write seems to come when I’m engaged in mindless but necessary work that just can’t wait.
And how about stinkin’ thinkin’! You know! “I don’t know where to begin. That adjective doesn’t truly define the situation. My kitchen is disgusting. I can’t do this. I suck at this! Yikes, fragment sentence!” You know what I’m talking about; stinkin’ thinkin’ that causes paralysis by over- analysis, excuses and self-pity!
So, what to do?! Today is a new day and so I have given myself permission to set a time for writing. That time is as vital as brushing my teeth! I have taken to keeping a notepad convenient to me at all times. And as for stinkin’ thinkin’, I wouldn’t talk that way to a friend! So why should I talk to myself in that manner!?! Instead, my thoughts will go, “ I will have so and so read this. This is a work in progress. If Heavenly Father can help Nephi build a boat, I can write a paragraph…”
And that final thought brings me to the most important…when in doubt, Pray. After all, we are His daughters and He has given us talents to develop, nurture and grow. Heavenly Father desires to help, inspire and strengthen us. It is merely there for the asking. Remember to pray, pray for help, guidance and inspiration….and then write on!
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