Holidays and ADD!!!!

Thanksgiving and Christmas are entirely too close together, for the scattered mind.
I had not even unloaded the Thanksgiving dishes, when my elves were bringing up the Christmas boxes from the basement. Or so it seemed.
The holidays are a tad stressful for the, oh so organized, but for the Attention Deficit person, Chaos cometh!!!La,La,La,La,Fa!!!! For example, while cooking Thanksgiving delights, my thoughts switch gears to re potting plants. I was measuring flour and sugar, and whipping cream in the mixer. Emma was cutting up cherries and celery. I was calling to Bill," I need the potting soil!" It was getting cold, and two plants on the deck, needed saving!!! One fantastic, jello/cream cheese salad and pumpkin pudding,stopped mid stir. Replanting two plants, would only take 5 minutes.
AN hour later, a pulled back muscle, and locating the red chargers, to place under the plants, so it looks like Christmas, the plants were safe inside!!(run on sentences, also an ADD problem!!!) Back to cooking.
The Thanksgiving dinner was delicious,and beautiful. Sharing food with , the family, the best reason to cook.
Then come "The Boxes", filled with Joy. ADD Nirvana, maybe not!!! but what an adventure!!! My journey with the Holidays,always cracks me up. I just spent an hour looking for,baby Jesus, and remembered the dog ate it last year!!!

PEARLS and BOB MARLEY.....

Rumor has it that Talbots may be closing. I don't believe it, but it has stirred up some emotions. I have "towed the fine line" between classic attire and dread locks my entire life. "Sybil in the South", its the Floridian style. As the winter commercial says, " The rules are different in Florida!!!" The sun and salt air, and the Devil's humidity create a style of our own. We can be "free-spirits" to a fault BUT...we don't care. We adorn ourselves with pearls and cut-off jeans. You can throw a sweet, pastel cardigan over anything and be dressed. We need Talbots to remain open. The sales ladies at Talbots could not get a job any other place. No one else would hire, these properly dressed, pent-up people. Marvelous ladies, classy, just not sassy. I need you to stick around. What will I throw over my Cyndi Lauper vintage frock, if not a cute blazer from The Big Red Door??? I hope its just a mean rumor. Talbots has kept me in check, and the " burbs" have not turned upside down , yet!!!! Pearls and Dreads, One Love!!!

Helicopter Pet Parent, Say That Three Times!!

So what if I am a "Hover-over" person. The buzz word now is "Helicopter" parent, and it is suppose to be bad???
Hovering is what I do, but my children are near grown. What is a helicopter parent to do? The lucky recipients of my affliction are my pets. I have become a Helicopter Pet Parent, and I want a bumper sticker!!!! My latest "Hover" moment was this past Sunday with our lab, Lucy Mae. Hart had his Sunday morning church , at the park, with Lucy. She somehow broke her toenail in half, a wounded 78 pound baby. Whats a hover to do?? I grabbed the tube of Neosporin and squeezed. The bleeding stopped, but the ointment was like an appetizer to Lucy, licked clean. So Hart and I took a jaunt to Walgreens, on a quest to find some liquid bandage. We hovered over the band aids, (he has his mommies genes) discussing our options, out loud, people were beginning to laugh. The liquid bandage had a warning on it, something about poison control and death!! I knew kids would lick wounds like dogs, so how could this be? So like a good" hover-er" I asked the pharmacist for help. She looked at me funny and said, " I don't know mam! " Lord, the civil war is over lady, and we lost, you don't have to call me "Mam".
We left the store with liquid bandage in hand, and the poison control number on speed dial!!! I had to doctor my pet.
She is fine now, thanks to my hovering ways. The Helicopter Pet Parent lives, and Lucy sleeps like a baby.

Finders, Keepers Crazy Cat

Moving furniture, hanging pictures, shuffling things around, therapy. Instead of yelling obscenities I move stuff!!! My very own special Tourettes. You could never be blind and live in my house. Just when you knew where things were located, moved!!!!
Sunday came around and there were mirrors to be hung. Husband and son, resistant assistants, were my helpers. We had to move the piano away from the wall, to hang the mirror. Once it was moved, Hart said, " Mom you had better look at this!" which could mean many things!!! Something dead, or alive, I was backing up!!! He promised me it was nothing bad, PLEASE!!!!!!!and sure enough it was so funny, a rare Find!!!! Fifty or more pony-tail holders were all lined up, a few pens scattered, a ball or two. Our "Crazy Diana", sweet calico cat is a HOARDER!!! She may need an intervention!! She has a hair holder fetish. We had found her secret place, under the piano. We screamed and laughed and ran for the camera, then we swept up the loot. Sadness came over me, I had disturbed her little secret, messed with her stuff. Shame on me, BUT....I had to clean. So later in the evening , taking the hair holder from my hair, I dropped it on the floor. Finders, Keepers crazy girl...

Power Over Prejudice

This past Friday four adults(I'm in that group!), and ten students went to an anti-prejudice consortium. I think it was more geared to the children, but you know how that story ends, I learned the most.
This gentleman, Dr. Leon Bass, spoke from experience about the evils of prejudice. He served in WWII, at the age of 19, yet could not eat in any restaurant, and sat , of course, in the back of the bus. He fought for our freedom and we denied him his. He witnessed the Holocaust, walked through the camps and it changed his life. He lost his anger. He had seen the devil's work, and that had trumped what he had been exposed too, in his young man life, in the states. He became a gentle-man, full of a desire to change things. It was my privilege to listen to him and shake his aged hand. Did I forget to tell you he was a black man? An angry young black man changed by horror abroad and at home, I think he may have been anointed!!!! and that wasn't what impressed me the most.
We adult educators, of all levels, went into our own group therapy. Some of the games we played, I had played before, so I did not learn a lot of new STUFF. What I did learn was, that in this group of 45 or so people, there were so many interesting stories. These people had tales to tell. They were young and older, educated and worn by life. They had talents, and had seen people and places from all walks of life. One lady even went to school with Luke Skywalker!!!! from STAR WARS!! One girl seated on my right was training for a marathon, the lady on my left was taking care of her sick mother. There were opera singers, and people who worked in Africa, and grandmothers going for their PHD's in education. These are all people who teach in some fashion children. How awesome a thought is that? I was beside myself with awe about the human race. There is hope, we are trying to make a difference, there is Power in one.
I asked the kids if they had a good time, and learned a lot about being good leaders, blah, blah, blah. They mentioned the food, and asked if they could listen to Ipods on the ride home. God I love middle school kids. One day, when they all become famous humanitarians, they will remember that beautiful fall day in Atlanta, and Dr. Leon Bass.

I WANT COOOOOKIES!!!!

Yesterday and Today Google has once again thrilled me with their logo. Cookie Monsters big eyes were the O's, and Big Birds sweet legs the L's . It was Sesame Street's 40th birthday. How can that be? Big Bird looks the same, the cookie monster has not gained a pound!!
Thinking about "the hood" brought back so many memories. I only had one child who would watch Sesame Street with me. One out of five, that is horrible, but at least that precious one, Ward, shared my love of these Muppet creatures. We would sing all of the songs, count with The Count!!!!, go to Mr. Hooper's store, learn English and Spanish from Maria. Gordon was one of my favs, we met him years later, and I fell over him, as if he were Robert Redford!!! My kids were no where to be seen, and I am in line to meet Gordon from Sesame Street!!!! Ward potty trained in front of that show. Potty chair, naked child and "Letter B" being sung in the background, or was it The Ladybug Picnic?? One of Ward's first words was "Oscar", not ma-ma, or Da-da, seriously Oscar!!!! We had every stuffed Bert and Ernie, Grover, Kermit, Cookie, Oscar in the Can!!!, big bird and if they had had a Gordon, we would have had that too!!!!!
A shrink told us one time, that Ward had a hard time knowing the difference between real and make believe!!! That could be true, doctor sir, because his mom thinks all the creatures on Sesame street are real!!! We got a new doctor, honestly!!!!! Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street????

I CAN NOT HANDLE THE TRUTH,SO LIE!!!!

Early morning flight out of Atlanta to Boston, all is good. An hour into the flight, the pilot comes on," Just wanted to inform you that we are having a problem with the left engine!" AND " we are turning the plane around and landing back in Atlanta" Fifty-five minutes later we landed. Can I tell you what I was thinking for those long minutes?? Should I call someone, do I smell smoke?? Why did the pilot feel the need to inform me? Wait until I have landed back in Atlanta and then tell me, there was a problem. No we just have to say everything, spill too much information all the time, its annoying. The pilot said some things about ten thousand feet and we could not fly any higher due to the ice, and the de-icer thingy was not working, and we had enough fuel to get back to Atlanta. Stop talking Mr. pilot man, I need you to concentrate and land this plane, you do not need to take me back to Atlanta, just put it down, I want off!!! Thank God after raising five children, my ability to tune everything out served me well. I put in my earplugs, and took a little nap. What else could I do?? We landed, switched planes, and on the runway the pilot came on ," We are number four ready for takeoff but........we are experiencing some navigational problems!!" Sweet Mother of God, I told you to LIE!!!!" "Just fix it , don't tell me about it!"