Anyone who knows me well, knows I'm a voracious reader and have been all my life. I have no idea how many books I've read in my lifetime, but it surely numbers in the thousands.
A mystery lover since the days of Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and the Dana Sisters, as an adult I naturally gravitated toward detective stories, especially British ones, reading them almost exclusively. Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, Dorothy Eden, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ruth Rendell, among so many others including American Mary Roberts Rinehart. Oh I forgot to mention the Jules Verne adventure stories! Though I'm drawn to those old books and authors, I must also mention my obsession with current day writer Martha Grimes and her Richard Jury mysteries. But I digress.
In 2009 or 2010, my husband and I got ourselves each a Kobo E-Reader. Not as fancy as Kindles or Nooks, they still did the job and we liked them well enough. In fact, we both went through 2 of them.
Last year, Patrick began having trouble with his latest reader not holding a charge; finally he gave up on it. I decided I'd get him a new Kindle for Christmas. He surprised me by getting me one as well. I can't begin to tell you how much I love my Kindle!
Being the cheapskate that I am, I promptly loaded my reader with a few hundred free books from Amazon. I searched 'Classic British mysteries', 'Classic Detective fiction', and every other set of key words I could think of to bring up books that were up my alley and greedily snagged one after another. I especially love vintage books written between the very late 1800s all the way through to 1960. I love the turn-of-the-century books as much for the lavish use of archaic words I've never heard of as for the overall flavor and atmosphere of the times.
In this book 'frenzy', I downloaded a book by Louis Tracy, The House Round the Corner. I liked it pretty well, so I searched Amazon for more Louis Tracy. I found LOTS!
I have an odd habit of reading by author. If I find an author I like, I have to read everything I can get my hands on by that person. So once I hit on Louis Tracy I had to get as many as I could find.
Each Louis Tracy book left me thinking, 'Wow, this guy was a pretty good writer! Why have I never heard of him?' I decided to see what I could find out about him. Strangely, I could not find out much:
In a nutshell, Louis Tracy (1863-1928) was a very prolific writer born in Liverpool. He was well-educated at home and in France and became a newpaper reporter and eventually a soldier and correspondent.
Tracy's novels are wide ranging and encompass mysteries, romance, history, politics, adventures and reportedly some science fiction, though I have yet to locate the latter.
He writes extremely well and his stories have the ability to suck me in and keep me hanging till the end. He peoples his books with very well developed characters and plots, accompanied by vividly painted landscapes and scenery.
Perhaps my literary education is severely lacking, but I never heard of this author in my life but I'm so happy I discovered him at the ripe age of nearly 65. I don't think I'd have appreciated him as much even ten years ago.
If you enjoy turn of the century mysteries, romances and adventure, please search out Louis Tracy if you've never read him. I hope it enriches your reading life as much as it did mine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Tracy
Friday, June 22, 2018
Saturday, June 24, 2017
For Donna
She lays her head upon her dusty purple pillow and speaks the aching sorrow in her heart. "Father, please take care of my friends, Donna, Richard and Jackie. Please make them well. Please help them, Lord." She prays this every night, along with pleas for blessings on her family members, husband, sister, daughter, son, grandson...indeed, on the world at large. She prays her thanks for what she has, and for the succor that is given them in their hours of need.
Tonight, she no longer prays that Donna is healed. Instead, she prays for a painless passage into the next life for her friend. She prays that the Father will take Donna into heaven. The grief weighs heavy on her heart as it has every night for the last six weeks, since Donna called her to tell her she had Stage 4 cancer of the pancreas, stomach and liver. Tears leak from her puffy eyes onto her pillowcase as she finally drifts into unconscious sleep.
The next morning, she wakes, swings her aging knees over the side of the bed and stands, looking for her slippers. She thinks of Donna, and the remembrance of yesterday's news that her friend is now unresponsive. As the memory fills her mind, it is no longer the heavy weight on her heart that it has been. While still tinged with sadness around the edges, instead there is also a lifting, an unfettered feeling, like a kite that has torn loose of its string and is flying free up and up. "She is gone." the realization comes to her mind. The time is 6:30 a.m.
She makes her way to the front of the house. She knows her husband is sitting out on the front porch with his coffee. She opens the door and stares at him through the screen. "Donna is gone." she says to him. "I just know it." She fixes her morning ice water and her own cup of coffee and goes out to join him.
Following her morning ritual with her beloved, she comes in and fires up her computer and looks to see if there has been any social media news posted of her friend's status. Nothing new. At about 8:30 her phone rings. "Rrrr. Telemarketers are starting early." she thinks. But no. The call is from Connecticut. She answers and hears her friend's cousin introduce herself and go on to tell her that Donna died earlier that morning around 8 a.m. EST. She calculates the time difference: about a half hour before she got out of bed...
Later, she tries to explain the feeling she had when she woke up and thought of her friend. "Maybe she stopped by to let you know and tell you goodbye." her husband suggests. The idea spawns a fresh bout of tears.
Goodbye for now, Donna. You had a heart as big as Montana. At least, there are no 'hyen-yas' in heaven to scare you. You're fine now and I'll see you again some day. Fly high on those new wings, girl, fly high.
Till next time,
Tonight, she no longer prays that Donna is healed. Instead, she prays for a painless passage into the next life for her friend. She prays that the Father will take Donna into heaven. The grief weighs heavy on her heart as it has every night for the last six weeks, since Donna called her to tell her she had Stage 4 cancer of the pancreas, stomach and liver. Tears leak from her puffy eyes onto her pillowcase as she finally drifts into unconscious sleep.
The next morning, she wakes, swings her aging knees over the side of the bed and stands, looking for her slippers. She thinks of Donna, and the remembrance of yesterday's news that her friend is now unresponsive. As the memory fills her mind, it is no longer the heavy weight on her heart that it has been. While still tinged with sadness around the edges, instead there is also a lifting, an unfettered feeling, like a kite that has torn loose of its string and is flying free up and up. "She is gone." the realization comes to her mind. The time is 6:30 a.m.
She makes her way to the front of the house. She knows her husband is sitting out on the front porch with his coffee. She opens the door and stares at him through the screen. "Donna is gone." she says to him. "I just know it." She fixes her morning ice water and her own cup of coffee and goes out to join him.
Following her morning ritual with her beloved, she comes in and fires up her computer and looks to see if there has been any social media news posted of her friend's status. Nothing new. At about 8:30 her phone rings. "Rrrr. Telemarketers are starting early." she thinks. But no. The call is from Connecticut. She answers and hears her friend's cousin introduce herself and go on to tell her that Donna died earlier that morning around 8 a.m. EST. She calculates the time difference: about a half hour before she got out of bed...
Later, she tries to explain the feeling she had when she woke up and thought of her friend. "Maybe she stopped by to let you know and tell you goodbye." her husband suggests. The idea spawns a fresh bout of tears.
Goodbye for now, Donna. You had a heart as big as Montana. At least, there are no 'hyen-yas' in heaven to scare you. You're fine now and I'll see you again some day. Fly high on those new wings, girl, fly high.
Till next time,
Friday, June 2, 2017
The Girl in the Aqua Net Dress
Once I hit my forties and the march of time became inevitable, I swore I would not turn into one of those frumpy old women as I eased into my fifties, sixties and beyond. Nice thought...but this age stuff really sneaks up on you, doesn't it?! Sorry to say, I am not really aging as gracefully as I'd hoped.
I look at those admirable, 'mature' (baby boomer) women on YouTube with their beauty/lifestyle channels and I think, 'Oh! I could do that!' Part of me really wants to...but no. No, I really couldn't. First of all, I doubt I could commit to it for any length of time. Lately I'm often too fatigued to put that much energy into such a long term project.
Most of all, I've been plagued by stage fright my entire life. A darn shame, too, since from an early age I wanted desperately to be a) a ballerina b) a famous singer c) an actress or d) all of the above. I deeply longed to be in the limelight. And practiced too! Around age four, Santa brought me a pink tutu. I whirled and twirled in it on the hardwood floor in front of our big old Philco television. When turned off, it made a great, almost full length mirror for a tiny dancer.
A few years later, I often sneaked into my teenage sister's closet and purloined one of her Job's Daughters formals. She had several of these tulle and satin creations that they wore to their meetings. I especially remember a pastel aqua creation, with rhinestones scattered throughout the net fabric. It was a strapless number, fortified with stiff boning to hold the bodice up. I'd stuff my Buster Brown socks into the bosom, grab a hairbrush to use as a microphone, assume my position 'on stage' and sing, a la Ethel Merman:
Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame,
Wake up the echoes cheering her name,
Send a volley cheer on high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky.
What though the odds be great or small
Old Notre Dame will win over all,
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to Victory!
When memory calls up that young girl dressed up in her sister's flouncy, early 60's era, prom-my dress, I can still feel myself raising my fist to the sky as I belt out that 'Victory!' at the end. Ruefully, I laugh and shake my head.
I managed okay throughout the elementary era Christmas/Easter pageants, because there were a lot of us on stage simultaneously, so misery had company. Also, our little speeches memorized by rote were simple to rattle off and be done with.
But as we grew older and our classmates grew crueler and more scathing in their taunting and mocking, my stage fright grew exponentially. Regardless of that and my relentlessly growing stage-fright, when freshman cheerleader tryouts came along at the end of eighth grade, I decided to give it a go. I wanted badly to be a cheerleader. At the time, it was my most fervent dream.
Despite somehow having become an object of ridicule during my junior high years (I was chubby, wore funny clothes and wasn't always the brightest scholar in the class--in short, I was a dweeb) I flung caution to the wind and signed up to try out. I'd never win if I didn't try. A girl in my class, Debbie, worked with me for a couple of weeks teaching me a few routines. I had them down pat. Then the day came for the auditions and out on the floor I went and faced my classmates sitting in the bleachers.
The fear gripped me intensely. I felt like melting jello inside. My legs felt like they were filled with concrete. Then the hoots and catcalls drove all the cheers right out of my head and my mind became a total blank. I fled the gym floor in the utmost shame and mortification. Debbie's expression was seared onto my retinas. Her disgust at having wasted so much of her time was written all over her face in big bold letters.
Throughout the rest of my life that deeply rooted stage fright has plagued me, so I don't see how I could ever put myself in front of a camera and talk to cyberspace. Prior to retiring, my job often required me to get up and make presentations and talk to large groups. That ingrained terror manifests itself in a mouth as dry as the Sahara, a twitching upper lip and knocking knees. Public speaking was always my greatest bane, to say the least. But I did it anyway and hopefully got much better over the two decades I worked at that job.
But I'm just an ordinary woman with nothing especially stellar to say that someone else isn't already saying. And now old age has crept up and bitten me right in the caboose when I wasn't looking...
The woman who once dressed and groomed herself meticulously every day has disappeared. The giant walk-in closet jammed full of pretty clothes for every occasion is gone forever. When my at-the-time new husband asked about the plethora of shoes, with a straight face I told him 'a woman simply can't have too many pairs of black shoes.' Today, my clothing fits into one small closet and a few drawers. I only own maybe six pairs of shoes. I just don't need more. Much of what I have never gets worn anyway.
Somehow I have a lot of bad hair days. I no longer wear makeup on the daily. Why? I'm not going anywhere and my skin prefers to be bare. Plus my eyes have grown sensitive to shadow, liner and mascara. I'm certainly no fashion icon; I dress to be comfortable. I've not yet discovered the magical elixir of youth--I look my age. I look exactly like Dorien's Gwannie...
But somewhere deep inside, that little ballerina longing to see herself in lights, belting out the Notre Dame Victory song, lives on!
Till next time,
"In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." ~ Andy Warhol
I look at those admirable, 'mature' (baby boomer) women on YouTube with their beauty/lifestyle channels and I think, 'Oh! I could do that!' Part of me really wants to...but no. No, I really couldn't. First of all, I doubt I could commit to it for any length of time. Lately I'm often too fatigued to put that much energy into such a long term project.
Most of all, I've been plagued by stage fright my entire life. A darn shame, too, since from an early age I wanted desperately to be a) a ballerina b) a famous singer c) an actress or d) all of the above. I deeply longed to be in the limelight. And practiced too! Around age four, Santa brought me a pink tutu. I whirled and twirled in it on the hardwood floor in front of our big old Philco television. When turned off, it made a great, almost full length mirror for a tiny dancer.
A few years later, I often sneaked into my teenage sister's closet and purloined one of her Job's Daughters formals. She had several of these tulle and satin creations that they wore to their meetings. I especially remember a pastel aqua creation, with rhinestones scattered throughout the net fabric. It was a strapless number, fortified with stiff boning to hold the bodice up. I'd stuff my Buster Brown socks into the bosom, grab a hairbrush to use as a microphone, assume my position 'on stage' and sing, a la Ethel Merman:
Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame,
Wake up the echoes cheering her name,
Send a volley cheer on high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky.
What though the odds be great or small
Old Notre Dame will win over all,
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to Victory!
When memory calls up that young girl dressed up in her sister's flouncy, early 60's era, prom-my dress, I can still feel myself raising my fist to the sky as I belt out that 'Victory!' at the end. Ruefully, I laugh and shake my head.
I managed okay throughout the elementary era Christmas/Easter pageants, because there were a lot of us on stage simultaneously, so misery had company. Also, our little speeches memorized by rote were simple to rattle off and be done with.
But as we grew older and our classmates grew crueler and more scathing in their taunting and mocking, my stage fright grew exponentially. Regardless of that and my relentlessly growing stage-fright, when freshman cheerleader tryouts came along at the end of eighth grade, I decided to give it a go. I wanted badly to be a cheerleader. At the time, it was my most fervent dream.
Despite somehow having become an object of ridicule during my junior high years (I was chubby, wore funny clothes and wasn't always the brightest scholar in the class--in short, I was a dweeb) I flung caution to the wind and signed up to try out. I'd never win if I didn't try. A girl in my class, Debbie, worked with me for a couple of weeks teaching me a few routines. I had them down pat. Then the day came for the auditions and out on the floor I went and faced my classmates sitting in the bleachers.
The fear gripped me intensely. I felt like melting jello inside. My legs felt like they were filled with concrete. Then the hoots and catcalls drove all the cheers right out of my head and my mind became a total blank. I fled the gym floor in the utmost shame and mortification. Debbie's expression was seared onto my retinas. Her disgust at having wasted so much of her time was written all over her face in big bold letters.
Throughout the rest of my life that deeply rooted stage fright has plagued me, so I don't see how I could ever put myself in front of a camera and talk to cyberspace. Prior to retiring, my job often required me to get up and make presentations and talk to large groups. That ingrained terror manifests itself in a mouth as dry as the Sahara, a twitching upper lip and knocking knees. Public speaking was always my greatest bane, to say the least. But I did it anyway and hopefully got much better over the two decades I worked at that job.
But I'm just an ordinary woman with nothing especially stellar to say that someone else isn't already saying. And now old age has crept up and bitten me right in the caboose when I wasn't looking...
The woman who once dressed and groomed herself meticulously every day has disappeared. The giant walk-in closet jammed full of pretty clothes for every occasion is gone forever. When my at-the-time new husband asked about the plethora of shoes, with a straight face I told him 'a woman simply can't have too many pairs of black shoes.' Today, my clothing fits into one small closet and a few drawers. I only own maybe six pairs of shoes. I just don't need more. Much of what I have never gets worn anyway.
Somehow I have a lot of bad hair days. I no longer wear makeup on the daily. Why? I'm not going anywhere and my skin prefers to be bare. Plus my eyes have grown sensitive to shadow, liner and mascara. I'm certainly no fashion icon; I dress to be comfortable. I've not yet discovered the magical elixir of youth--I look my age. I look exactly like Dorien's Gwannie...
But somewhere deep inside, that little ballerina longing to see herself in lights, belting out the Notre Dame Victory song, lives on!
Till next time,
"In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." ~ Andy Warhol
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Where Have I Been????
It's been quite a year so far. Hopefully, things will calm down soon and I can regain my equilibrium. But wanted to give you an update on my whereabouts.
I've had a couple of health issues going on since last November. A couple of family members' health has had me concerned, too. And three dear friends are having serious situations, as well. When it rains it pours, they say and boy howdy! Isn't that the truth? When you are worrying about yourself and/or others, it makes it hard to focus on a hobby/pastime.
The weather has been swinging back and forth like a pendulum this spring. Warm, cold, raining, dry. You name it, we've had it this spring! But the cooler the better in my opinion, as the later it stays on the cool side, the shorter our hot season will be.
Thanks to all of you who keep popping on here to see if there are any new posts. Your loyalty makes my heart warm! I'm at over 12,500 page views! Amazing!
I'll be back...
(in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger/Terminator voice)
Till next time,
"Friends, though absent, are still present." ~ Cicero
"Everything heals. Your body heals. Your heart heals. The mind heals. Wounds heal. Your soul repairs itself. Your happiness is always going to come back. Bad times don't last." ~ Unknown
I've had a couple of health issues going on since last November. A couple of family members' health has had me concerned, too. And three dear friends are having serious situations, as well. When it rains it pours, they say and boy howdy! Isn't that the truth? When you are worrying about yourself and/or others, it makes it hard to focus on a hobby/pastime.
The weather has been swinging back and forth like a pendulum this spring. Warm, cold, raining, dry. You name it, we've had it this spring! But the cooler the better in my opinion, as the later it stays on the cool side, the shorter our hot season will be.
Thanks to all of you who keep popping on here to see if there are any new posts. Your loyalty makes my heart warm! I'm at over 12,500 page views! Amazing!
I'll be back...
(in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger/Terminator voice)
Till next time,
"Friends, though absent, are still present." ~ Cicero
"Everything heals. Your body heals. Your heart heals. The mind heals. Wounds heal. Your soul repairs itself. Your happiness is always going to come back. Bad times don't last." ~ Unknown
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Yinny, the Intrepid
I've written about my two favorite aunts, Sarah and Mary, and I've mentioned my parents, my children, my husband and my sister in passing. But my sister is very special to me and I want everyone to know why.
Lindy (Lynne Dee) is eight years older than I. By all accounts, she was like a little mother to me for years. As a toddler, I couldn't pronounce L's and called her 'Yinny'. Naturally, I always looked up to her and she was held up to me by my mother as someone to strive to be like. I never did reach that standard!
What was so great about this paragon of virtue? Well, for starters, she excelled in school and college, played piano and organ like a virtuoso and succeeded greatly at everything she turned her hand to. There was simply no failure for her.
As a child, I pretty much worshiped the ground Lindy trod on. I was so proud to be her sister! To me, she was perfect. Tiny, fiercely determined to achieve, and just a nice, good person.
When she went off to her freshman year at Indiana State, ten-year-old-me was extremely sad. But we still got to see her on weekends and in the summers. One year, she had a summer job between semesters and stayed in a tiny apartment in Terre Haute. I was allowed to spend a week there with her away from Mom and Dad. It was fabulous! She introduced me to Italian Beef sandwiches and we went to see Planet of the Apes, which affected me profoundly for some reason. (It was that buried Statue of Liberty on the beach at the end that got to me.) I treasured the entire experience; it was such an adventure for a young, small town girl!
When she decided to marry in 1966 or 67, I was sad again. It seemed my sister kept slipping farther and farther away. But when she and her Air Force husband were sent to Berlin, Germany, I was devastated. Bereft, I sent her terrible poems I'd adapted from war songs like 'Johnny's Gone for a Soldier', rewriting the verses to encompass my feelings for her and how much I missed her. I was thirteen then.
She was gone for two years. When they eventually returned to the states and pulled up in front of our house, Mom, Dad and I went out on the porch to greet them. I could hardly breathe, I was so beside myself with joy. I wanted to throw my arms around her and never let her go again.
But dysfunctional as we were, no one touched anyone else. That distancing struck me as strange, given the circumstances. Why did nobody hug each other? That's what I wanted to do. But that's how my family was. You were supposed to keep your feelings tightly in check. No public or even private displays of emotion. Instead, I just smiled and shyly stared intently at the gray boards under my feet that our porch was made up of.
We saw her intermittently after that over the following years. She and her husband lived in Syracuse, NY for a short while and eventually he was transferred to Anchorage, AK of all places.
Meanwhile, at home, we grew more and more dysfunctional. I had no true understanding then that my mother had some serious issues. I thought she was simply mean and kind of crazy. But back in those days, rural folk like us didn't just trot off to the nearest psychologist or psychotherapist and unburden themselves on a couch. No, we just looked the other way and dealt with it. We didn't talk it to death or even really acknowledge it much. It just was. Looking back, I'm pretty sure Mom was bi-polar among several other things and all I knew was that life at home was miserable.
After I graduated from high school, I worked for a very short time in a dental office. It didn't work out; the dentist was well into his eighties with a rather violent temper. The 'throwing things' kind of temper. He kept firing me and then calling and asking me to come back to work. The third or fourth time, I said no. After that, I was chronically unemployed and still living at home. I was desperate to get out and away from my mother.
I wrote to my sister in Alaska and told her what all was going on with Mom and how hopeless life seemed. Shortly thereafter, she sent me the money to get on a plane to come to Anchorage. I girded my loins and bearded the lion in her den (actually she and Dad were just sitting in the kitchen as usual) and told them I was going to leave. After the shock wore off, they agreed. They paid my airfare, took me to Indianapolis and put me on a plane. I'd never flown before.
Let me say that while I might still sound bitter at times about the relationship between my mother and myself, I was finally able to forgive her. Realizing she was a broken human being, unable to help herself, I have only deep love and yes, pity for her. My biggest regret is that the knowledge of what could have been done for her came too late.
It had been a couple of years since my sister and I'd seen each other and she didn't even recognize me at first. I recognized her, though! Talk about a sight for sore eyes! She looked like an angel straight from heaven. And she was!
That was the first time she saved me. While staying there, she taught me that I could do whatever I decided I wanted to do. I only needed faith in myself and the self-discipline to do it. I also believed steadfastly in God and the power of prayer and I prayed a lot. Between God and my sister, I managed to complete a dental assisting course with good grades and began working in dental offices with a certification for 'expanded duties'.
Perhaps that doesn't sound like that much of an achievement. But for a girl who'd been told her entire life that she was worthless, could never be good enough, was not only stupid but hopelessly retarded, it was like winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics. When I achieved that, the world opened up to me and I knew I could go anywhere, do anything I set my mind to. It changed my life entirely because for the first time ever, I had confidence. Lindy had taught me to believe in myself.
Less than two years later, I married a service man, too, and we were transferred off to Fort Hood, TX. Ten years after that and two babies later, we divorced, quite acrimoniously. After five years of ups and downs, including a second failed relationship, my sister helped me move back to Indiana with my kids. At last I was in a stable environment again. My sister kept her hands pretty much out of it, to allow me to be responsible for my own life, but she was always there when/if I needed her.
With her mentoring, I learned that I didn't actually need a man in my life. I learned I could control my own life and raise my children in the way I felt was best for them. Lindy helped me always to know that I could, could manage my life. And I did.
I eventually remarried and ended up here in Utah, as told in my stories above (see tabs under the top banner). My kids grew up and are living their own lives with determination and confidence. As for we two sisters, we are aging despite our best efforts to resist!
Recently, my 71 year old sister made the decision to drive across country by herself! She drove from northern Indiana down through Missouri, on to New Mexico then through Arizona to southern Utah. It was something she'd wanted to do for a long time, driving around and visiting various places she'd heard about. Her ultimate destination was to come here to spend a month with us. I'm still amazed that she so bravely and successfully did this, especially at her age and with her health issues. And then to drive all the way back!
That's an example of her innate drive and will to accomplish.
I treasure my "Yinny, the Intrepid". I will never forget and will never be ungrateful for the courage that I gained, simply from her belief in me and her encouragement.
Long may she reign!
"Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship." ~ Margaret Mead
Lindy (Lynne Dee) is eight years older than I. By all accounts, she was like a little mother to me for years. As a toddler, I couldn't pronounce L's and called her 'Yinny'. Naturally, I always looked up to her and she was held up to me by my mother as someone to strive to be like. I never did reach that standard!
What was so great about this paragon of virtue? Well, for starters, she excelled in school and college, played piano and organ like a virtuoso and succeeded greatly at everything she turned her hand to. There was simply no failure for her.
As a child, I pretty much worshiped the ground Lindy trod on. I was so proud to be her sister! To me, she was perfect. Tiny, fiercely determined to achieve, and just a nice, good person.
When she went off to her freshman year at Indiana State, ten-year-old-me was extremely sad. But we still got to see her on weekends and in the summers. One year, she had a summer job between semesters and stayed in a tiny apartment in Terre Haute. I was allowed to spend a week there with her away from Mom and Dad. It was fabulous! She introduced me to Italian Beef sandwiches and we went to see Planet of the Apes, which affected me profoundly for some reason. (It was that buried Statue of Liberty on the beach at the end that got to me.) I treasured the entire experience; it was such an adventure for a young, small town girl!
When she decided to marry in 1966 or 67, I was sad again. It seemed my sister kept slipping farther and farther away. But when she and her Air Force husband were sent to Berlin, Germany, I was devastated. Bereft, I sent her terrible poems I'd adapted from war songs like 'Johnny's Gone for a Soldier', rewriting the verses to encompass my feelings for her and how much I missed her. I was thirteen then.
She was gone for two years. When they eventually returned to the states and pulled up in front of our house, Mom, Dad and I went out on the porch to greet them. I could hardly breathe, I was so beside myself with joy. I wanted to throw my arms around her and never let her go again.
But dysfunctional as we were, no one touched anyone else. That distancing struck me as strange, given the circumstances. Why did nobody hug each other? That's what I wanted to do. But that's how my family was. You were supposed to keep your feelings tightly in check. No public or even private displays of emotion. Instead, I just smiled and shyly stared intently at the gray boards under my feet that our porch was made up of.
We saw her intermittently after that over the following years. She and her husband lived in Syracuse, NY for a short while and eventually he was transferred to Anchorage, AK of all places.
Meanwhile, at home, we grew more and more dysfunctional. I had no true understanding then that my mother had some serious issues. I thought she was simply mean and kind of crazy. But back in those days, rural folk like us didn't just trot off to the nearest psychologist or psychotherapist and unburden themselves on a couch. No, we just looked the other way and dealt with it. We didn't talk it to death or even really acknowledge it much. It just was. Looking back, I'm pretty sure Mom was bi-polar among several other things and all I knew was that life at home was miserable.
After I graduated from high school, I worked for a very short time in a dental office. It didn't work out; the dentist was well into his eighties with a rather violent temper. The 'throwing things' kind of temper. He kept firing me and then calling and asking me to come back to work. The third or fourth time, I said no. After that, I was chronically unemployed and still living at home. I was desperate to get out and away from my mother.
I wrote to my sister in Alaska and told her what all was going on with Mom and how hopeless life seemed. Shortly thereafter, she sent me the money to get on a plane to come to Anchorage. I girded my loins and bearded the lion in her den (actually she and Dad were just sitting in the kitchen as usual) and told them I was going to leave. After the shock wore off, they agreed. They paid my airfare, took me to Indianapolis and put me on a plane. I'd never flown before.
Let me say that while I might still sound bitter at times about the relationship between my mother and myself, I was finally able to forgive her. Realizing she was a broken human being, unable to help herself, I have only deep love and yes, pity for her. My biggest regret is that the knowledge of what could have been done for her came too late.
It had been a couple of years since my sister and I'd seen each other and she didn't even recognize me at first. I recognized her, though! Talk about a sight for sore eyes! She looked like an angel straight from heaven. And she was!
That was the first time she saved me. While staying there, she taught me that I could do whatever I decided I wanted to do. I only needed faith in myself and the self-discipline to do it. I also believed steadfastly in God and the power of prayer and I prayed a lot. Between God and my sister, I managed to complete a dental assisting course with good grades and began working in dental offices with a certification for 'expanded duties'.
Perhaps that doesn't sound like that much of an achievement. But for a girl who'd been told her entire life that she was worthless, could never be good enough, was not only stupid but hopelessly retarded, it was like winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics. When I achieved that, the world opened up to me and I knew I could go anywhere, do anything I set my mind to. It changed my life entirely because for the first time ever, I had confidence. Lindy had taught me to believe in myself.
Less than two years later, I married a service man, too, and we were transferred off to Fort Hood, TX. Ten years after that and two babies later, we divorced, quite acrimoniously. After five years of ups and downs, including a second failed relationship, my sister helped me move back to Indiana with my kids. At last I was in a stable environment again. My sister kept her hands pretty much out of it, to allow me to be responsible for my own life, but she was always there when/if I needed her.
With her mentoring, I learned that I didn't actually need a man in my life. I learned I could control my own life and raise my children in the way I felt was best for them. Lindy helped me always to know that I could, could manage my life. And I did.
I eventually remarried and ended up here in Utah, as told in my stories above (see tabs under the top banner). My kids grew up and are living their own lives with determination and confidence. As for we two sisters, we are aging despite our best efforts to resist!
Recently, my 71 year old sister made the decision to drive across country by herself! She drove from northern Indiana down through Missouri, on to New Mexico then through Arizona to southern Utah. It was something she'd wanted to do for a long time, driving around and visiting various places she'd heard about. Her ultimate destination was to come here to spend a month with us. I'm still amazed that she so bravely and successfully did this, especially at her age and with her health issues. And then to drive all the way back!
That's an example of her innate drive and will to accomplish.
I treasure my "Yinny, the Intrepid". I will never forget and will never be ungrateful for the courage that I gained, simply from her belief in me and her encouragement.
Long may she reign!
"Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship." ~ Margaret Mead
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Leslie's Savory Chicken, Vegetables and Rice Dinner
Here's one of my super easy skillet dishes. It's one of those kind of dishes where I just used what was at hand and it turned out to be a happy accident:
Savory Chicken, Vegetables and Rice
Place frozen chicken tenders in a hot skillet prepped with about a tablespoon of cooking oil and or butter. (I like to mix the two). Brown the chicken on one side and turn over. Add the frozen vegetables on top. Turn the heat to low and place a tight lid on the skillet. This will trap steam that will help cook the vegetables.
When the veggies are nearly tender (usually in appx. 30 minutes, add 2 cups of water and the packet of dry soup and mix well.
Cut the rice boil-in bag open and mix the rice directly into the liquid. (At this point, you can break the chicken into smaller pieces, if you desire.)
Let the mixture come back to a boil, replace the lid, keeping the heat on low to simmer. Stir occasionally, and serve when the rice is tender, usually fifteen minutes or so.
Serves up to 4 people.
I originally made this dish several years ago using just peeled and sliced potatoes instead of mixed veggies and rice. It was delicious, too, but we really liked this version even better.
You can get creative and use whatever vegetables and starch you prefer: brown rice, potatoes, even quinoa, or beans. Add a single veg like broccoli or your personal favorites. You can also sprinkle shredded cheese on top.
Sorry I didn't think to take a picture of it before we ate it up!😁😁😁
Enjoy!
Savory Chicken, Vegetables and Rice
- 6 frozen chicken breast tenderloins
- Approximately 2 to 3 cups frozen mixed veggies (I used Bird's Eye Normandy blend which has squash, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots)
- 1 packet Lipton Savory Herb and Garlic Soup mix
- Success brand Boil-In Bag White Rice
- 2 cups water
- small amount of oil/butter
Place frozen chicken tenders in a hot skillet prepped with about a tablespoon of cooking oil and or butter. (I like to mix the two). Brown the chicken on one side and turn over. Add the frozen vegetables on top. Turn the heat to low and place a tight lid on the skillet. This will trap steam that will help cook the vegetables.
When the veggies are nearly tender (usually in appx. 30 minutes, add 2 cups of water and the packet of dry soup and mix well.
Cut the rice boil-in bag open and mix the rice directly into the liquid. (At this point, you can break the chicken into smaller pieces, if you desire.)
Let the mixture come back to a boil, replace the lid, keeping the heat on low to simmer. Stir occasionally, and serve when the rice is tender, usually fifteen minutes or so.
Serves up to 4 people.
I originally made this dish several years ago using just peeled and sliced potatoes instead of mixed veggies and rice. It was delicious, too, but we really liked this version even better.
You can get creative and use whatever vegetables and starch you prefer: brown rice, potatoes, even quinoa, or beans. Add a single veg like broccoli or your personal favorites. You can also sprinkle shredded cheese on top.
Sorry I didn't think to take a picture of it before we ate it up!😁😁😁
Enjoy!
Searching for the Perfect Nude Lip Color, and Recent Ebay Lipstick Binge
It's really hard to find 'the perfect nude' lip color. There are so many variations out there and frankly, most of them don't work for me. You, too?
Either the shades are too tan, too peach, too brown, too light, too grey, too gold, or even too pink sometimes. Or they are too matte, too shiny, too frosty or sparkly. Picky, picky, picky.
But while indulging in a purely nostalgic visit to the local Elizabeth Arden counter recenty, I finally found the 'perfect nude' lipcolor (for me, that is).
Once upon a time, I was an ardent Elizabeth Arden consumer. There was just something so elegant and exclusive about the brand, I regularly indulged. In my early twenties, it made me feel so 'grown up'. I loved the foundations, eyeshadows and lipsticks especially. And of course, I'd snag the holiday blockbuster from this brand year after year.
Am not sure what happened, but somehow along the way, I gradually stepped away from this beautiful brand. It may have been the Sephora influence with its emphasis on more indie type brands, that drew me away from traditional department store shopping? Hard to say, really.
At any rate, Elizabeth Arden faded hard into the background and finally disappeared completely. I think at the time of her resurrection back into my makeup life, all I had remaining from those old days was a discontinued lipstick (Solar) and a compact of cream highlighter called 'Into the Light', also long since discontinued. Those had been hung onto for purely sentimental reasons. Because I'm weird like that...
Recently, my heart had begun yearning for a visit to the department store makeup counters of yore. Plus I was on a hardcore mission to find a great natural color lip product. So off my sister and I went to the small local Dillard's.
And I mean small. Their cosmetic department consists of five brands. FIVE! Estee Lauder, Lancome, Clinique, Clarins and Elizabeth Arden. Strangely, judging by comments I've read online, these brands have come to be considered 'old lady makeup' by the younger generations. Really!?
I had gone there primarily to look at the Lancome lip products. Sadly, I didn't find much there that thrilled me. Except I did discover they still carried Coquette lipstick (which the sales rep kept calling Corquette! 😂), and as it was an old favorite of mine from times past, I got one. A pretty golden pink, but a bit too glittery to look good on me any longer.
But I hit the jackpot, sort of, over at the Arden counter. I stopped there to see if they had Golden Nude, a shade I'd seen online on the Elizabeth Arden website. A twinge of disappointment. They no longer carried that shade, according to the salesperson.
But wow, what other gorgeous colors they had! As I systematically looked at each and every tester, I eventually picked up a Ceramide Ultra formula lipstick called Sugar. I smeared some on the heel of my thumb. Oh. Oh!
This could be it! I tried it on my lips. It beefed up the color without going overboard. Yes, yes, yes. I liked it! A midtone cool beige with a faintly pink undertone, not too light, not too dark, not too brown, not too anything! My sister loved it, too. Told the saleslady I'd take it. She rummaged around in her inventory drawer. No luck. They were out of stock. 😟
The disappointment was severe. Oh, well, did I really need to be spending $25 on a lipstick anyway? I remember when Chanel lipsticks were $25 and how outrageously expensive I thought that was way back when. But it hadn't deterred me from buying a few...it was Chanel, after all. Totally different story, right? And let's not even talk about the price of Tom Ford lipstick, but I digress.
Okay then, back at Dillard's...I looked at lip pencils...tried a few of those on my hand and found one called Sugared Kiss, a nice neutral that filled the bill.
Fortunately, she did have that one, so I got it. Well, I'd just have to come back for the Sugar lipstick some other time. Or would I?
Later on at home, out of curiosity, I found myself searching Ebay for Elizabeth Arden Sugar lipstick. (You know how I love finding goodies on Ebay.) I found quite a few! One seller had several of the GWP (gift with purchase) packages of Sugar lipstick for $8.55 a tube. Free shipping. Hmm.
My sister would only be here a couple more weeks and she liked it too. What the heck, I put 2 in my cart and sent over the payment. How bad could it be?
Not bad at all! I quickly received the 2 tubes a few days later. Oh, thank goodness! They were obviously brand new, never opened, and in totally pristine condition, no odor. My Ebay luck was still holding!
I trotted back to my bedroom, fetched out the Sugared Kiss lipliner, slapped it on and layered the Sugar over it. Yahoooo! Exactly what I was looking for in a nude lip. The formulas did not emphasize the lines in my aging lips! Just enough pink to look natural with my skin tone. Not too dark, not too light. No corpse lips. Like Baby Bear, juuuust right.
Of course, that could not simply be the end of it. Now on the hunt, I perused Ebay on and off for a week looking at all the Elizabeth Arden offerings because, as per usual, I was now obsessed...
Over the next few weeks, I eventually purchased the following, all Elizabeth Arden:
The Golden Nude shade the Dillard's saleslady told me they no longer carried (though still available on the EA website). Though a bit out of my comfort zone, it's absolutely beautiful, a light, peachy beige with barely noticeable golden shimmer. Will look best when I'm a little more tan this summer. Great with a dab of pink gloss on top. Brand new in the box. Under $14. Not the ideal price but better than the retail of $25.
A tube of Starlight lipstick, which I'd call a mid-tone neutral violet, was a trip down memory lane. Long ago it was my favorite Elizabeth Arden lipstick shade, now discontinued. However, the tube I received was fresh and pristine and new in box. I paid around $5 or $6 including shipping. A steal!
Another discontinued shade called Perfect Blossom, which was a total gamble, but I went for it. I thought I'd like it, after googling swatches of it. I was right, it is nice. A neutral pink, it's similar to Sugar but less beige, more pink. Under $9.
A set of three small double-ended lip pencils, Sugared Kiss and Natural. And because one is just never enough, I purchased a third tube of Sugar from the same seller that sold me the first two as well as the aforementioned lip pencils. After all, I gave a tube to my sister, so I need a backup, right?? 😏
Welcome back, Liz!
Till next time,
"I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe the happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe tomorrow is another day, and...I believe in miracles." ~ Audrey Hepburn
"Until I was a teenager, I used red pokeberries for lipstick and a burnt matchstick for an eyeliner. I used honeysuckle for perfume." ~ Dolly Parton
"I came out of the womb waving red lipstick." ~ Rose McGowan
Either the shades are too tan, too peach, too brown, too light, too grey, too gold, or even too pink sometimes. Or they are too matte, too shiny, too frosty or sparkly. Picky, picky, picky.
But while indulging in a purely nostalgic visit to the local Elizabeth Arden counter recenty, I finally found the 'perfect nude' lipcolor (for me, that is).
Once upon a time, I was an ardent Elizabeth Arden consumer. There was just something so elegant and exclusive about the brand, I regularly indulged. In my early twenties, it made me feel so 'grown up'. I loved the foundations, eyeshadows and lipsticks especially. And of course, I'd snag the holiday blockbuster from this brand year after year.
Am not sure what happened, but somehow along the way, I gradually stepped away from this beautiful brand. It may have been the Sephora influence with its emphasis on more indie type brands, that drew me away from traditional department store shopping? Hard to say, really.
At any rate, Elizabeth Arden faded hard into the background and finally disappeared completely. I think at the time of her resurrection back into my makeup life, all I had remaining from those old days was a discontinued lipstick (Solar) and a compact of cream highlighter called 'Into the Light', also long since discontinued. Those had been hung onto for purely sentimental reasons. Because I'm weird like that...
Recently, my heart had begun yearning for a visit to the department store makeup counters of yore. Plus I was on a hardcore mission to find a great natural color lip product. So off my sister and I went to the small local Dillard's.
And I mean small. Their cosmetic department consists of five brands. FIVE! Estee Lauder, Lancome, Clinique, Clarins and Elizabeth Arden. Strangely, judging by comments I've read online, these brands have come to be considered 'old lady makeup' by the younger generations. Really!?
I had gone there primarily to look at the Lancome lip products. Sadly, I didn't find much there that thrilled me. Except I did discover they still carried Coquette lipstick (which the sales rep kept calling Corquette! 😂), and as it was an old favorite of mine from times past, I got one. A pretty golden pink, but a bit too glittery to look good on me any longer.
But I hit the jackpot, sort of, over at the Arden counter. I stopped there to see if they had Golden Nude, a shade I'd seen online on the Elizabeth Arden website. A twinge of disappointment. They no longer carried that shade, according to the salesperson.
But wow, what other gorgeous colors they had! As I systematically looked at each and every tester, I eventually picked up a Ceramide Ultra formula lipstick called Sugar. I smeared some on the heel of my thumb. Oh. Oh!
This could be it! I tried it on my lips. It beefed up the color without going overboard. Yes, yes, yes. I liked it! A midtone cool beige with a faintly pink undertone, not too light, not too dark, not too brown, not too anything! My sister loved it, too. Told the saleslady I'd take it. She rummaged around in her inventory drawer. No luck. They were out of stock. 😟
The disappointment was severe. Oh, well, did I really need to be spending $25 on a lipstick anyway? I remember when Chanel lipsticks were $25 and how outrageously expensive I thought that was way back when. But it hadn't deterred me from buying a few...it was Chanel, after all. Totally different story, right? And let's not even talk about the price of Tom Ford lipstick, but I digress.
Okay then, back at Dillard's...I looked at lip pencils...tried a few of those on my hand and found one called Sugared Kiss, a nice neutral that filled the bill.
 |
| Elizabeth Arden Sugared Kiss Lip Pencil |
 |
| The Elizabeth Arden Sugar lipstick, from Ebay |
My sister would only be here a couple more weeks and she liked it too. What the heck, I put 2 in my cart and sent over the payment. How bad could it be?
Not bad at all! I quickly received the 2 tubes a few days later. Oh, thank goodness! They were obviously brand new, never opened, and in totally pristine condition, no odor. My Ebay luck was still holding!
I trotted back to my bedroom, fetched out the Sugared Kiss lipliner, slapped it on and layered the Sugar over it. Yahoooo! Exactly what I was looking for in a nude lip. The formulas did not emphasize the lines in my aging lips! Just enough pink to look natural with my skin tone. Not too dark, not too light. No corpse lips. Like Baby Bear, juuuust right.
Nude lipcolor nirvana has been achieved!
Of course, that could not simply be the end of it. Now on the hunt, I perused Ebay on and off for a week looking at all the Elizabeth Arden offerings because, as per usual, I was now obsessed...
Over the next few weeks, I eventually purchased the following, all Elizabeth Arden:
The Golden Nude shade the Dillard's saleslady told me they no longer carried (though still available on the EA website). Though a bit out of my comfort zone, it's absolutely beautiful, a light, peachy beige with barely noticeable golden shimmer. Will look best when I'm a little more tan this summer. Great with a dab of pink gloss on top. Brand new in the box. Under $14. Not the ideal price but better than the retail of $25.
A tube of Starlight lipstick, which I'd call a mid-tone neutral violet, was a trip down memory lane. Long ago it was my favorite Elizabeth Arden lipstick shade, now discontinued. However, the tube I received was fresh and pristine and new in box. I paid around $5 or $6 including shipping. A steal!
Another discontinued shade called Perfect Blossom, which was a total gamble, but I went for it. I thought I'd like it, after googling swatches of it. I was right, it is nice. A neutral pink, it's similar to Sugar but less beige, more pink. Under $9.
A set of three small double-ended lip pencils, Sugared Kiss and Natural. And because one is just never enough, I purchased a third tube of Sugar from the same seller that sold me the first two as well as the aforementioned lip pencils. After all, I gave a tube to my sister, so I need a backup, right?? 😏
Welcome back, Liz!
Till next time,
"I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe the happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe tomorrow is another day, and...I believe in miracles." ~ Audrey Hepburn
"Until I was a teenager, I used red pokeberries for lipstick and a burnt matchstick for an eyeliner. I used honeysuckle for perfume." ~ Dolly Parton
"I came out of the womb waving red lipstick." ~ Rose McGowan
Monday, February 27, 2017
OverHyped Stuff I Should Have Avoided
I'm a sucker...I admit it. Marketing doesn't usually hook me nearly as much as people swearing up and down that Such'n'such Whatzit is the next best thing since rolled toilet paper. So I just want to share with you that before you leap, here's my take on a few products that in my humble opinion, are vastly overrated. At least, for me, they were.
I want to start with Egyptian Magic. About a year or two ago, I started hearing all sorts of raves about this product. According to the EG website, this is "a phenomenal healing balm with legendary powers due to a unique mixture of all natural ingredients derived only from living plants and organisms." The ingredients are listed as olive oil, beeswax, honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, bee propolis, and Divine Love. Oh. My. Goodness!! It must be magic!
It's touted to be miraculous for all types of skin ailments, such as psoriasis, eczema, rashes, cuts, scrapes, sunburns, burns, scars, insect bites/stings as well as being an anti-wrinkle cream, after shave balm, hair conditioner, lip balm, vaginal moisturizer and lubricant, makeup remover....the list is endless and covers the skin, hair and nail care gamut. Seriously, what's not to love? And celebrities use it and swear by it...
Just to be clear, it's not a bad product. I personally just did not encounter any magical miracles using this product. To me, this was nothing more than a heavy, greasy, slightly waxy all-purpose unguent. And it doesn't smell great, either. If you decide to buy this, use the heck out of it for everything because it has a limited shelf life and will go rancid in a year or less. And it is not cheap...$40 for a 4 ounce jar and $26 for a 2 ounce jar. I'm sorry, I felt it was vastly overpriced for what it is and didn't feel it was any better than Eucerin, Nivea, CeraVe or other commercial brands of skin lotions and potions available at any drugstore.
Another product that vastly disappointed me was IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream with SPF 50. (What a mouthful! Why does IT Cosmetics create such ridiculously long names for their stuff?) I've tried many of their other offerings and generally, they are very good. I'd heard so much hype about this particular product all over the web, I finally caved and bought it.
I believe if you have the right skin type, this might be a dream product for you. The shade selection is very limited but unless you are super-porcelain or super-deep dark, you'll find one of the shades will most likely work for you (with the aid of bronzer and/or a properly matched-to-your skin tone face powder). I agree that this is way more than a simple CC cream. It is quite rich, feels wonderful on the skin and I've no doubt that daily use would produce some visible benefits for your skin. The coverage is unbelievable for a so-called cc cream. This has sheer to medium coverage and I feel it could easily be built up to full coverage. It also smells fabulous, with a fresh citrus-like scent.
However, this product looks like crap, yes crap, on me. It highlights every pore and wrinkle on my face and looks cakey no matter how much I use or however I apply it. I have tried using a tiny barely-there amount and I've tried a slightly heavier amount. I've tried a damp blender sponge, various foundation brushes and my fingers. Nothing seems to make any difference. No matter what I do, I end up looking like the surface of the moon...craters galore. And to add insult to injury, the 1.08 ounce tube runs $38. That's too much cash for something that makes me look perfectly awful.
If you have skin with little to no 'texture', and is fine-pored and smooth with few crinkles, this may be just what you're looking for. It just doesn't work for me at all. Sorry IT Cosmetics. Love some of your stuff very much, just not this one.
Physician's Formula Murumuru Butter Bronzer and Blushes. These have been raved about all over the internet as well. At least the bronzer has been raved about. There are mixed reviews about the blushes. Let's take a look at the bronzer first, since it's gotten the most hype. I love Physician's Formula products. They tend to have a slightly higher price tag than other drugstore brands but the quality is there and generally the amount of product for $$ is a good value.
What is good about the Butter blushes and bronzer is that you do get a fair amount of product and they all smell like a tropical coconut-ty paradise. To just look at them, they are beautiful colors, especially the blushes. My problem? Color payoff. It's just not there.
The bronzer comes in two shades, Bronzer and Light Bronzer. I purchased the 'darker' one, Bronzer. It is very light and is barely visible on my light to medium skin tone. To get any color payoff, I have to reapply numerous times to get it to show up at all. Mind you, I'm not a believer in having obvious bronzer or blusher stripes on the sides of my face. But I would like there to be some color. That's the point of it, right?
The blushes come in two shades, as well. Natural Glow and Plum Rose. Natural Glow is a golden peach color with some light shimmer. The Plum Rose is what I'd call a natural nudie-pink color with no discernible shimmer. These blushes are so sheer, I seriously have to put four to six layers on for it to show up at all. I just don't want to have to work that hard to get a color cosmetic to do its job. It's a shame because these are really beautiful colors.
In addition, both bronzer and blush come not with the usual half-moon brush, but a bizarre silicone-like paddle applicator. Which, by the way, it doesn't work either.
I would buy these products for a very young teenager who doesn't really need to be adding a lot of color to her pretty face anyway. It's like kiddie makeup. My apologies, Physician's Formula, these were a bust for me.
Well, ya can't win 'em all, can ya?
Till next time,
"My own saying is: 'Create the hype, but don't ever believe it.' " ~ Simon Cowell
I want to start with Egyptian Magic. About a year or two ago, I started hearing all sorts of raves about this product. According to the EG website, this is "a phenomenal healing balm with legendary powers due to a unique mixture of all natural ingredients derived only from living plants and organisms." The ingredients are listed as olive oil, beeswax, honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, bee propolis, and Divine Love. Oh. My. Goodness!! It must be magic!
 |
| Image from egyptianmagic.com |
It's touted to be miraculous for all types of skin ailments, such as psoriasis, eczema, rashes, cuts, scrapes, sunburns, burns, scars, insect bites/stings as well as being an anti-wrinkle cream, after shave balm, hair conditioner, lip balm, vaginal moisturizer and lubricant, makeup remover....the list is endless and covers the skin, hair and nail care gamut. Seriously, what's not to love? And celebrities use it and swear by it...
Just to be clear, it's not a bad product. I personally just did not encounter any magical miracles using this product. To me, this was nothing more than a heavy, greasy, slightly waxy all-purpose unguent. And it doesn't smell great, either. If you decide to buy this, use the heck out of it for everything because it has a limited shelf life and will go rancid in a year or less. And it is not cheap...$40 for a 4 ounce jar and $26 for a 2 ounce jar. I'm sorry, I felt it was vastly overpriced for what it is and didn't feel it was any better than Eucerin, Nivea, CeraVe or other commercial brands of skin lotions and potions available at any drugstore.
Another product that vastly disappointed me was IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream with SPF 50. (What a mouthful! Why does IT Cosmetics create such ridiculously long names for their stuff?) I've tried many of their other offerings and generally, they are very good. I'd heard so much hype about this particular product all over the web, I finally caved and bought it.
 |
| Image from Ulta |
I believe if you have the right skin type, this might be a dream product for you. The shade selection is very limited but unless you are super-porcelain or super-deep dark, you'll find one of the shades will most likely work for you (with the aid of bronzer and/or a properly matched-to-your skin tone face powder). I agree that this is way more than a simple CC cream. It is quite rich, feels wonderful on the skin and I've no doubt that daily use would produce some visible benefits for your skin. The coverage is unbelievable for a so-called cc cream. This has sheer to medium coverage and I feel it could easily be built up to full coverage. It also smells fabulous, with a fresh citrus-like scent.
However, this product looks like crap, yes crap, on me. It highlights every pore and wrinkle on my face and looks cakey no matter how much I use or however I apply it. I have tried using a tiny barely-there amount and I've tried a slightly heavier amount. I've tried a damp blender sponge, various foundation brushes and my fingers. Nothing seems to make any difference. No matter what I do, I end up looking like the surface of the moon...craters galore. And to add insult to injury, the 1.08 ounce tube runs $38. That's too much cash for something that makes me look perfectly awful.
If you have skin with little to no 'texture', and is fine-pored and smooth with few crinkles, this may be just what you're looking for. It just doesn't work for me at all. Sorry IT Cosmetics. Love some of your stuff very much, just not this one.
Physician's Formula Murumuru Butter Bronzer and Blushes. These have been raved about all over the internet as well. At least the bronzer has been raved about. There are mixed reviews about the blushes. Let's take a look at the bronzer first, since it's gotten the most hype. I love Physician's Formula products. They tend to have a slightly higher price tag than other drugstore brands but the quality is there and generally the amount of product for $$ is a good value.
What is good about the Butter blushes and bronzer is that you do get a fair amount of product and they all smell like a tropical coconut-ty paradise. To just look at them, they are beautiful colors, especially the blushes. My problem? Color payoff. It's just not there.
The bronzer comes in two shades, Bronzer and Light Bronzer. I purchased the 'darker' one, Bronzer. It is very light and is barely visible on my light to medium skin tone. To get any color payoff, I have to reapply numerous times to get it to show up at all. Mind you, I'm not a believer in having obvious bronzer or blusher stripes on the sides of my face. But I would like there to be some color. That's the point of it, right?
 |
| Image from I Know My Makeup Blog |
The blushes come in two shades, as well. Natural Glow and Plum Rose. Natural Glow is a golden peach color with some light shimmer. The Plum Rose is what I'd call a natural nudie-pink color with no discernible shimmer. These blushes are so sheer, I seriously have to put four to six layers on for it to show up at all. I just don't want to have to work that hard to get a color cosmetic to do its job. It's a shame because these are really beautiful colors.
In addition, both bronzer and blush come not with the usual half-moon brush, but a bizarre silicone-like paddle applicator. Which, by the way, it doesn't work either.
I would buy these products for a very young teenager who doesn't really need to be adding a lot of color to her pretty face anyway. It's like kiddie makeup. My apologies, Physician's Formula, these were a bust for me.
Well, ya can't win 'em all, can ya?
Till next time,
"My own saying is: 'Create the hype, but don't ever believe it.' " ~ Simon Cowell
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Makeup Talk: Nothing New?
If you're anywhere close to my age (63), you know perfectly well that there's nothing new under the sun. That's not exactly 100% true; there are all kinds of 'not new' things coming out all the time!
Liquid lipstick for example. It's really quite the rage now and has been for at least the last year or so. It's been so hyped on YouTube, it seems every cosmetic company has come out with them, or are bringing out new formulas and colors all the time.
But I had liquid lipstick twenty years ago! My favorites were from Clinique and Prescriptives.
Regardless of the brand, they all smelled odd and were extremely drying on the lips. Plus, they went 'off' or rancid a lot quicker than regular lipstick or gloss. Sound familiar? Granted, the newer formulas are much better and more comfortable according to the reviewers.
Back in the seventies, I had a Revlon Blush-On (remember that?) in a shade called Frosty. I never ever wore it; it was just pretty in the compact. The whole thing simply confused me! I mean, we were always being cautioned to keep the shine off our faces, right? And here was this 'blush' in a faintly pink, off white sparkly shade! I think I put it on once. And promptly washed it off.
What exactly was one supposed to do with this?? I kept it for years and finally tossed it. Then lo, and behold, some time later I found it again in a dusty old drugstore somewhere (they obviously didn't update their inventory too often)! Silly me, I bought it again, for nostalgia's sake. Again, I kept it for years and eventually tossed it...again. I'm weird that way, what can I say? Some people love antiques; I like 'antique' makeup...
Back in the day, Max Factor, L'Oreal and Revlon put out themed or seasonal collections all the time (gee, I wish they still did!). In 1999, Max released some products, including a shimmery Panstick, inspired by the Michelle Pfeiffer movie, A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of the nail colors and the shimmer stick were called Cobweb. Both of these were a sheer, silvery white, with a tasteful smattering of micro glitter. Seriously fairy-like! I loved them! Wore the nail color quite a bit, but never put the stick makeup on my face. I'd smear it on the back of my hand and admire it, but it never touched my face.
So, yes, highlighters have been around a long time, too. It was just that some us had no clue how to wear them! YouTube didn't launch until 2005, so there was no giant community of beauty mavens and makeup artists to show us how.
Let's talk about nude makeup. Sorry if this bursts anyone's bubble, but Urban Decay was NOT the first to 'get Naked'. The birth of natural, neutral, nude makeup was the brainchild of the late, great artist Kevyn Aucoin. In the eighties, beginning with a line from Revlon, color cosmetics were finally developed based on all skin tones. This concept was quickly transferred to Revlon's premier line, Ultima II, and expanded into The New Nakeds (later renamed just The Nakeds). This genius concept has inspired and influenced many brands in the decades since. And now 'Nude' is so prevalent, you can't turn around in the cosmetic department without seeing it everywhere. Thank you, Kevyn Aucoin.
Liquid lipstick for example. It's really quite the rage now and has been for at least the last year or so. It's been so hyped on YouTube, it seems every cosmetic company has come out with them, or are bringing out new formulas and colors all the time.
But I had liquid lipstick twenty years ago! My favorites were from Clinique and Prescriptives.
(Let's observe a moment of silence to honor the late, great, beloved Prescriptives...)
Regardless of the brand, they all smelled odd and were extremely drying on the lips. Plus, they went 'off' or rancid a lot quicker than regular lipstick or gloss. Sound familiar? Granted, the newer formulas are much better and more comfortable according to the reviewers.
 |
| Yep, had some of these, too. |
Back in the seventies, I had a Revlon Blush-On (remember that?) in a shade called Frosty. I never ever wore it; it was just pretty in the compact. The whole thing simply confused me! I mean, we were always being cautioned to keep the shine off our faces, right? And here was this 'blush' in a faintly pink, off white sparkly shade! I think I put it on once. And promptly washed it off.
 |
| Revlon 'Frosty' Blush-On |
Back in the day, Max Factor, L'Oreal and Revlon put out themed or seasonal collections all the time (gee, I wish they still did!). In 1999, Max released some products, including a shimmery Panstick, inspired by the Michelle Pfeiffer movie, A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of the nail colors and the shimmer stick were called Cobweb. Both of these were a sheer, silvery white, with a tasteful smattering of micro glitter. Seriously fairy-like! I loved them! Wore the nail color quite a bit, but never put the stick makeup on my face. I'd smear it on the back of my hand and admire it, but it never touched my face.
 |
| Bottom: Max Factor 'Cobweb' Shimmer Panstick |
So, yes, highlighters have been around a long time, too. It was just that some us had no clue how to wear them! YouTube didn't launch until 2005, so there was no giant community of beauty mavens and makeup artists to show us how.
Let's talk about nude makeup. Sorry if this bursts anyone's bubble, but Urban Decay was NOT the first to 'get Naked'. The birth of natural, neutral, nude makeup was the brainchild of the late, great artist Kevyn Aucoin. In the eighties, beginning with a line from Revlon, color cosmetics were finally developed based on all skin tones. This concept was quickly transferred to Revlon's premier line, Ultima II, and expanded into The New Nakeds (later renamed just The Nakeds). This genius concept has inspired and influenced many brands in the decades since. And now 'Nude' is so prevalent, you can't turn around in the cosmetic department without seeing it everywhere. Thank you, Kevyn Aucoin.
 |
| A selection of Ultima II The Nakeds lip colors. |
 |
| Ultima II The Nakeds Eyeshadow #17 |
 |
| And who can forget Glowtion? |
Revlon continued on with its own nude tradition in the 90s with The Fleshtones, which gave me a great lipstick called Deep Nude and a wonderful pale nude pink eyeshadow called Barefoot that I loved. (I think there was a soft beige one called Skin, as well.) When I learned that Barefoot was being discontinued, I bought all that our local Meijer store still had in stock. I still have 2 or 3 of them!
Later on, Revlon Skinlights was launched, and is currently in its second incarnation. The first round included various shades of glowy powders and sheer cream highlighters in small, flat rectangular palettes, in addition to shimmery liquids in pump bottles. These were all too soon discontinued. But the liquids were re-released in squeeze tubes, I assume due to popular demand and can still be found at drugstores and Walmart. But I recently saw them somewhere on clearance, so they may be on the way out again, not sure.
I could go on, but this post is long enough! Most (not all) new makeup that comes out today brings me some measure of déjà vu. Is that just because I'm older than dirt? Or does this happen to you, too?
There's an orange No Comments or Comment button below each post; if you click on it, you can leave me a comment.
 |
| Revlon Fleshtone magazine ad |
Later on, Revlon Skinlights was launched, and is currently in its second incarnation. The first round included various shades of glowy powders and sheer cream highlighters in small, flat rectangular palettes, in addition to shimmery liquids in pump bottles. These were all too soon discontinued. But the liquids were re-released in squeeze tubes, I assume due to popular demand and can still be found at drugstores and Walmart. But I recently saw them somewhere on clearance, so they may be on the way out again, not sure.
I could go on, but this post is long enough! Most (not all) new makeup that comes out today brings me some measure of déjà vu. Is that just because I'm older than dirt? Or does this happen to you, too?
There's an orange No Comments or Comment button below each post; if you click on it, you can leave me a comment.
 |
| Where to go to leave me a comment. Just click right there!
I'd love to hear about your makeup déjà vus!
Till next time,
"There's nothing new under the sun--you just get a can of paint out." ~ Robert Plant
|
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Leslie's Quick and Easy Chili
Whaat? Another recipe? Has the woman lost her mind? No, my friend requested this recipe so I thought "Put it on your blog!"
This is not the hottest, spiciest chili. Nor does it have beans. I also cheat and use commercial seasoning.
My ex mother-in-law, who was from Texas, taught me a long time ago how to make great homemade chili from scratch. And I was really proud of that 'real chili'. In fact, some of you will look at this recipe and think "That's NOT real chili."
However, this is not that chili. My husband suffers from IBS, so I have had to 'cook around him' since we met. Depending on your perspective, it may not be 'real chili'. But it tastes wonderful and we love it.
Leslie's Quick and Easy Chili
About 3 cups peeled, diced potatoes (this is in lieu of beans. If you'd rather have beans, go for it! When I did make chili with beans, I used 1 15 oz. can each (drained and rinsed) dark kidney and red beans, but you use whatever you prefer.)
In a dutch oven or soup/stockpot, brown the ground beef and onion over medium heat, breaking up the meat as it cooks. When the beef is cooked through, add the remaining ingredients (except the garlic) and stir well. Bring to a boil. Cover and turn the heat down to a simmer. Stir occasionally to keep the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Throw in the dash of garlic just prior to serving.
Serve with shredded cheese on top, if you like. Hubby covers his with cheese, while I pile on the saltines!
This makes a big pot of chili. We eat it for a couple of days and freeze the rest for a rainy day. Hope you enjoy!
Till next time,
"I'm the kind of person who will drive three hours for a bowl of chili. I'm not a three star restaurant kind of person; I'm just a food person." ~ Nora Ephron
This is not the hottest, spiciest chili. Nor does it have beans. I also cheat and use commercial seasoning.
My ex mother-in-law, who was from Texas, taught me a long time ago how to make great homemade chili from scratch. And I was really proud of that 'real chili'. In fact, some of you will look at this recipe and think "That's NOT real chili."
However, this is not that chili. My husband suffers from IBS, so I have had to 'cook around him' since we met. Depending on your perspective, it may not be 'real chili'. But it tastes wonderful and we love it.
Leslie's Quick and Easy Chili
- 2 pounds ground beef (chuck)
- 1 small to medium diced onion
- 1 large (28 oz) can tomato sauce
- 1 14.5 oz. can diced fire-roasted tomatoes (there is also a salsa style one w/peppers if you want to turn up the heat a bit)
- 1 tomato sauce can of water
- 2 packets of mild chili seasoning
- 1 generous Tbsp. each of cumin (comino), chili powder, and cilantro.
- Dash of garlic powder
About 3 cups peeled, diced potatoes (this is in lieu of beans. If you'd rather have beans, go for it! When I did make chili with beans, I used 1 15 oz. can each (drained and rinsed) dark kidney and red beans, but you use whatever you prefer.)
In a dutch oven or soup/stockpot, brown the ground beef and onion over medium heat, breaking up the meat as it cooks. When the beef is cooked through, add the remaining ingredients (except the garlic) and stir well. Bring to a boil. Cover and turn the heat down to a simmer. Stir occasionally to keep the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Throw in the dash of garlic just prior to serving.
Serve with shredded cheese on top, if you like. Hubby covers his with cheese, while I pile on the saltines!
This makes a big pot of chili. We eat it for a couple of days and freeze the rest for a rainy day. Hope you enjoy!
Till next time,
"I'm the kind of person who will drive three hours for a bowl of chili. I'm not a three star restaurant kind of person; I'm just a food person." ~ Nora Ephron
Saturday, January 14, 2017
The Lights Are On But Nobody's Home---YouTube TAG from MsCavalier01
This is my first ever 'tag' or 'collab'! YouTubers do 'tag' and 'collab' videos all the time, but never saw a blogger do this before. If you're not that familiar with YouTube, a 'tag' is where someone thinks up a little game or subject to create a video around, makes the video, then calls on other YouTubers to do the same. Sometimes it's a game, like The Whisper Challenge, or sometimes it's simply answering a given set of questions. A 'collab' or collaboration is pretty self-explanatory.
In this case, Colleen, who I mentioned in my recipe post, did a collab with another content creator called LeadMeToPeaceJeannie about some of the challenges we face in our sixties, primarily forgetfulness. Colleen suggested I write about it on this blog (since I don't do videos) and I thought, "Why not?" Thank you, Colleen, for the encouragement and thank you to Jeannie for the idea of this topic.
Here is Colleen's video HERE and Jeannie's video is HERE. Just click those links and give these ladies a thumbs up and subscribe, if you aren't already! I can't really expand much at all on their two pretty comprehensive videos. But here's a couple of things...
(I asked my husband if he could think of any funny incidents caused by my forgetfulness. His response was, "Well, I'd have to remember, wouldn't I?" Smart aleck...)
Yes, that 'sixties fog' some of us find ourselves living in! I can tell you there have been plenty of times I put food on the stove to cook and forgot to turn the burner on or searched high and low for my glasses, only to finally find them perched on top of my head. Also, I lose pens and other small things and am convinced someone has stolen them. I'm sure most of us have done similar kinds of things. (Well, maybe not the lurking sneak-thief paranoia...)
I may have written about this one before, I don't remember! A woman I used to work with told me about this horrible smell in her kitchen. As each day went by, it got worse and worse. Every day, she searched high and low for the source of this nasty odor. Finally, she found it...she had cleaned out her freezer and had set some fish wrapped in foil on top of her fridge and totally forgot about it. Can you imagine the stench after a week? I laughed till I cried when she told me this story!
Quite recently I under-boiled (is that a word?) some eggs to make egg salad. I was chagrined when I peeled one and saw that the eggs weren't quite done. I popped the rest of them back on the stove and got them back up to a boil. Hating to waste the peeled egg, I was about to toss it in the trash when I spied the microwave. "I know, I'll just pop it in there for a minute!" So I did. What I forgot was that you really aren't supposed to microwave whole eggs. This was something I was very well aware of, but it totally slipped my mind. When the egg was done I happily pulled out a knife to cut it. Covered the egg and knife with my left hand and proceeded to slice it open. Good thing, too, because BANG! That egg totally exploded into the palm of my hand. In a nano-second the most searing pain registered in my shocked brain. Luckily, I was standing right by the sink when all this happened so I immediately thrust my seriously scalded hand under the cold water tap. Did I mention the blood-curdling scream following that bang? I did not know my dear old husband could move that fast anymore! Next thing I knew, he was at my side, "What happened, Boo? Are you ok?" while I sobbed at the sink, "I'm an IDIOT!" I wailed. Poor guy thought I'd electrocuted myself with the microwave. This whole episode just ticked me off....I KNEW BETTER! But my brain just wasn't quite working...
A couple of times I've gotten in the shower only to look down and realize I still had my underwear on...
Or I've been known to go around half the day with my shirt on inside out. Once I wore two different shoes to the hairdresser's and didn't realize it till I was on my way home...
On a serious note though (and Colleen discussed this in her video), one thing I want to heavily stress is the importance of normal oxygen levels and of quality sleep to maintain a healthier brain function. And this is for people of all ages. I don't want to repeat a lot of what Colleen said, so let me just illustrate this point with a couple of stories.
When I first met my husband, I was in a horrible habit of staying up late, watching TV, then reading till I fell asleep. I was never asleep before 11:30 or midnight. Getting up was a nightmare. I'd hit the snooze fifteen times until at last I had only ten or fifteen minutes to get ready for work. At work, I struggled to fight off sleepiness all day and I could never remember things I was supposed to get done. Somehow I managed, but it was a constant battle that went on for several years. That memory issue was getting frightening...I was only in my mid-forties then! I even started taking ginko biloba but I didn't see much difference.
Then along came Patrick, a very structured fellow, who lives by his schedules. When we became a couple and began living together, it was a strain on me. (Undoubtedly on him, too!) He was so regimented in his routines! He had to be in bed no later than 8 p.m. so he could get up at 3 a.m. to get ready for work, etc. Eight o'clock! Who goes to bed at eight o'clock besides toddlers? And there couldn't be any noise in the house either to disturb him. 'Oy vey! That meant no TV loud enough to bother him, no washing a load of clothes at night, etc. etc. This was a tough adjustment for an impulsive person who pretty much winged her way through life.
But he was adamant about his bedtime and we all had to respect that and tiptoe around him. Soon it was easier just to join him rather than try to beat him... So I began going to bed by nine. Eventually, this became a habit and I was asleep by ten every night. Before I knew it, I was getting up without an alarm clock! The workday sleepiness vanished as well as the memory problems I'd been having. Gone! All from getting a couple of extra hours of sleep every night.
A very close friend of mine, Milly, who's now in her early seventies, has been suffering from an upside-down sleep cycle (up all night, sleeping all day), chronic, debilitating fatigue and depression, and horrifically scary memory issues among other things. This has been going on for maybe as long as twelve or more years. The last five or six years Milly has been steadily getting worse to the point that she is seriously worrying her family and friends. In fact, she sometimes climbs into bed and doesn't get out for 24 hours or more. So when she doesn't answer her phone during the day, we get alarmed.
In a recent conversation, Milly did not recall us having spent 2 weeks with her the previous summer at her house! She looked completely blank when we mentioned it. She finally remembered after about 20 minutes of our prompting 'Remember this, remember that?' She loses her purse and her phone constantly. I'm not sure how many phones she's lost, but I'd guess at least half a dozen. Once we went shopping, and my husband ended up following Milly around the store, picking up her purse every time she laid it down and walked away. He swears it was at least ten times...in ONE store! Once she was traveling and had driven two hours before realizing her purse was missing. She was lucky that time; she called the restaurant she'd been at and they confirmed they had found her purse and kept it till she drove the two hours back to retrieve it. What is most frightening is the frequency with which these incidents happen to her. I don't believe Milly has any idea how close to outright dementia she has been edging towards...
Thankfully, a few months ago she finally changed doctors and underwent some sleep tests (among other tests). They discovered she had sleep apnea and a low blood oxygen level and put her on a CPAP machine at night. (Continuous positive airway pressure therapy uses a machine to increase air pressure in your throat so your airway doesn't collapse when breathing in). Since using the machine, Milly's blood oxygen levels are improving, she is feeling much better and her depression is improving as well. In fact, she is more chipper than I've seen her in forever! This is also due to a change in some of her medications, but still...it's a remarkable change. Now, if we can just get her to drink water! I can't stress enough the importance of quality sleep and sufficient oxygen for brain function.
I also want to tell you about my neighbor, Sue. She and Milly are a study in extreme contrasts. Sue is at least 80, walks five or six miles every day and zips around our neighborhood like a teenager. She told me she was heavy and smoked when she was young, but got pretty sick. The doctors told her she could continue on and die young or she could change her ways... Sue made up her mind she was NOT going to die young. She changed her entire lifestyle, became vegan, stopped smoking, lost weight and walked, walked, walked. Today, at 80+, she takes no medications whatsoever. Her blood pressure is normal. Everything about her is normal, except for her zealous attitude about life. Her eyes sparkle with enthusiasm for every new day God graces her. And Sue never stops moving. Use it or lose it!
On a side note, when I had my eye issue recently, Sue advised me to get some bilberry extract. She had started developing a cataract and swore that she cured herself of it by the use of bilberry. Reading up on it, I learned it's also excellent for cardiovascular health and has a number of other benefits great for us in our golden years. There are almost no side effects either, but please do your own research.
On another related note, I recently put a pair of 3.5" bed risers under the head of my bed, so that I am sleeping on an incline with head higher than my feet. (I'd tried a wedge pillow but found it very uncomfortable and impossible to fall asleep.) The very first morning after using the risers, I woke up with much less brain fog than usual and much less nasal/sinus congestion. Any morning grogginess dissipates faster. And there are many more benefits as well. It's helpful for those with acid reflux and for snorers. It may also help some types of back pain. Click HERE for an interesting article with more info about sleeping on an incline. For me, the bed risers are perfect!
Time continues to march on and much to our surprise, one day we wake up to find ourselves in our sixties. But that's the good news! The rest is just normal aging stuff, but we can deal with it! Most of us are from an era where it's uncomfortable talking about our frailties. However, we gain by sharing and banding together, and learning we're not alone in this aging thing. Hopefully, you found something helpful in this post today, or at least got a chuckle!
Thank you again, Colleen for suggesting this post/tag/collab. And thanks to Jeannie for starting this conversation!
Till next time,
"The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
In this case, Colleen, who I mentioned in my recipe post, did a collab with another content creator called LeadMeToPeaceJeannie about some of the challenges we face in our sixties, primarily forgetfulness. Colleen suggested I write about it on this blog (since I don't do videos) and I thought, "Why not?" Thank you, Colleen, for the encouragement and thank you to Jeannie for the idea of this topic.
Here is Colleen's video HERE and Jeannie's video is HERE. Just click those links and give these ladies a thumbs up and subscribe, if you aren't already! I can't really expand much at all on their two pretty comprehensive videos. But here's a couple of things...
(I asked my husband if he could think of any funny incidents caused by my forgetfulness. His response was, "Well, I'd have to remember, wouldn't I?" Smart aleck...)
Yes, that 'sixties fog' some of us find ourselves living in! I can tell you there have been plenty of times I put food on the stove to cook and forgot to turn the burner on or searched high and low for my glasses, only to finally find them perched on top of my head. Also, I lose pens and other small things and am convinced someone has stolen them. I'm sure most of us have done similar kinds of things. (Well, maybe not the lurking sneak-thief paranoia...)
I may have written about this one before, I don't remember! A woman I used to work with told me about this horrible smell in her kitchen. As each day went by, it got worse and worse. Every day, she searched high and low for the source of this nasty odor. Finally, she found it...she had cleaned out her freezer and had set some fish wrapped in foil on top of her fridge and totally forgot about it. Can you imagine the stench after a week? I laughed till I cried when she told me this story!
Quite recently I under-boiled (is that a word?) some eggs to make egg salad. I was chagrined when I peeled one and saw that the eggs weren't quite done. I popped the rest of them back on the stove and got them back up to a boil. Hating to waste the peeled egg, I was about to toss it in the trash when I spied the microwave. "I know, I'll just pop it in there for a minute!" So I did. What I forgot was that you really aren't supposed to microwave whole eggs. This was something I was very well aware of, but it totally slipped my mind. When the egg was done I happily pulled out a knife to cut it. Covered the egg and knife with my left hand and proceeded to slice it open. Good thing, too, because BANG! That egg totally exploded into the palm of my hand. In a nano-second the most searing pain registered in my shocked brain. Luckily, I was standing right by the sink when all this happened so I immediately thrust my seriously scalded hand under the cold water tap. Did I mention the blood-curdling scream following that bang? I did not know my dear old husband could move that fast anymore! Next thing I knew, he was at my side, "What happened, Boo? Are you ok?" while I sobbed at the sink, "I'm an IDIOT!" I wailed. Poor guy thought I'd electrocuted myself with the microwave. This whole episode just ticked me off....I KNEW BETTER! But my brain just wasn't quite working...
A couple of times I've gotten in the shower only to look down and realize I still had my underwear on...
Or I've been known to go around half the day with my shirt on inside out. Once I wore two different shoes to the hairdresser's and didn't realize it till I was on my way home...
 |
| Yep, those are my feet on the way home from my haircut. I laughed so hard, I had to grab my phone and take a picture! |
When I first met my husband, I was in a horrible habit of staying up late, watching TV, then reading till I fell asleep. I was never asleep before 11:30 or midnight. Getting up was a nightmare. I'd hit the snooze fifteen times until at last I had only ten or fifteen minutes to get ready for work. At work, I struggled to fight off sleepiness all day and I could never remember things I was supposed to get done. Somehow I managed, but it was a constant battle that went on for several years. That memory issue was getting frightening...I was only in my mid-forties then! I even started taking ginko biloba but I didn't see much difference.
Then along came Patrick, a very structured fellow, who lives by his schedules. When we became a couple and began living together, it was a strain on me. (Undoubtedly on him, too!) He was so regimented in his routines! He had to be in bed no later than 8 p.m. so he could get up at 3 a.m. to get ready for work, etc. Eight o'clock! Who goes to bed at eight o'clock besides toddlers? And there couldn't be any noise in the house either to disturb him. 'Oy vey! That meant no TV loud enough to bother him, no washing a load of clothes at night, etc. etc. This was a tough adjustment for an impulsive person who pretty much winged her way through life.
But he was adamant about his bedtime and we all had to respect that and tiptoe around him. Soon it was easier just to join him rather than try to beat him... So I began going to bed by nine. Eventually, this became a habit and I was asleep by ten every night. Before I knew it, I was getting up without an alarm clock! The workday sleepiness vanished as well as the memory problems I'd been having. Gone! All from getting a couple of extra hours of sleep every night.
A very close friend of mine, Milly, who's now in her early seventies, has been suffering from an upside-down sleep cycle (up all night, sleeping all day), chronic, debilitating fatigue and depression, and horrifically scary memory issues among other things. This has been going on for maybe as long as twelve or more years. The last five or six years Milly has been steadily getting worse to the point that she is seriously worrying her family and friends. In fact, she sometimes climbs into bed and doesn't get out for 24 hours or more. So when she doesn't answer her phone during the day, we get alarmed.
In a recent conversation, Milly did not recall us having spent 2 weeks with her the previous summer at her house! She looked completely blank when we mentioned it. She finally remembered after about 20 minutes of our prompting 'Remember this, remember that?' She loses her purse and her phone constantly. I'm not sure how many phones she's lost, but I'd guess at least half a dozen. Once we went shopping, and my husband ended up following Milly around the store, picking up her purse every time she laid it down and walked away. He swears it was at least ten times...in ONE store! Once she was traveling and had driven two hours before realizing her purse was missing. She was lucky that time; she called the restaurant she'd been at and they confirmed they had found her purse and kept it till she drove the two hours back to retrieve it. What is most frightening is the frequency with which these incidents happen to her. I don't believe Milly has any idea how close to outright dementia she has been edging towards...
Thankfully, a few months ago she finally changed doctors and underwent some sleep tests (among other tests). They discovered she had sleep apnea and a low blood oxygen level and put her on a CPAP machine at night. (Continuous positive airway pressure therapy uses a machine to increase air pressure in your throat so your airway doesn't collapse when breathing in). Since using the machine, Milly's blood oxygen levels are improving, she is feeling much better and her depression is improving as well. In fact, she is more chipper than I've seen her in forever! This is also due to a change in some of her medications, but still...it's a remarkable change. Now, if we can just get her to drink water! I can't stress enough the importance of quality sleep and sufficient oxygen for brain function.
I also want to tell you about my neighbor, Sue. She and Milly are a study in extreme contrasts. Sue is at least 80, walks five or six miles every day and zips around our neighborhood like a teenager. She told me she was heavy and smoked when she was young, but got pretty sick. The doctors told her she could continue on and die young or she could change her ways... Sue made up her mind she was NOT going to die young. She changed her entire lifestyle, became vegan, stopped smoking, lost weight and walked, walked, walked. Today, at 80+, she takes no medications whatsoever. Her blood pressure is normal. Everything about her is normal, except for her zealous attitude about life. Her eyes sparkle with enthusiasm for every new day God graces her. And Sue never stops moving. Use it or lose it!
On a side note, when I had my eye issue recently, Sue advised me to get some bilberry extract. She had started developing a cataract and swore that she cured herself of it by the use of bilberry. Reading up on it, I learned it's also excellent for cardiovascular health and has a number of other benefits great for us in our golden years. There are almost no side effects either, but please do your own research.
On another related note, I recently put a pair of 3.5" bed risers under the head of my bed, so that I am sleeping on an incline with head higher than my feet. (I'd tried a wedge pillow but found it very uncomfortable and impossible to fall asleep.) The very first morning after using the risers, I woke up with much less brain fog than usual and much less nasal/sinus congestion. Any morning grogginess dissipates faster. And there are many more benefits as well. It's helpful for those with acid reflux and for snorers. It may also help some types of back pain. Click HERE for an interesting article with more info about sleeping on an incline. For me, the bed risers are perfect!
Time continues to march on and much to our surprise, one day we wake up to find ourselves in our sixties. But that's the good news! The rest is just normal aging stuff, but we can deal with it! Most of us are from an era where it's uncomfortable talking about our frailties. However, we gain by sharing and banding together, and learning we're not alone in this aging thing. Hopefully, you found something helpful in this post today, or at least got a chuckle!
Thank you again, Colleen for suggesting this post/tag/collab. And thanks to Jeannie for starting this conversation!
Till next time,
"The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
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