Yesterday, I was watching WHEEL OF FORTUNE and this week is for couples because it's Sweethearts Week. At the very end, the winning couple was attempting to solve the puzzle but despite my fervent encouragement from home (screaming out the answer) the buzzer went.
My husband asked me, as he does frequently, 'Why don't you go on there?' Usually, I quip back quickly that I'd probably get a brain freeze or get tongue tied. This time I said, 'I'm too ugly.'
Why do I still say that about myself? I'm closer to 70 than 60. You'd think I would have learned by now that I don't look like anyone else. I am unique and I am a natural beauty. I don't do well with cosmetics other than lipstick. I've seen pictures of me as a toddler and child and I was cute! However, I am not smiling in most of them. I think I know why. I was not a physically abused child but I was not nurtured or praised at all. Hugs and kisses were rare in our household. Every day was a tightrope walk (even though I wasn't then aware of it) through rules and mores. Scots ones, American ones, and Mexican ones. Local ones, school rules, growing up ones. Which ones were the right ones? They were ALL right depending on the day or the hour.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Thursday, January 31, 2019
What A Time!
It's been a bit since I have written, but it isn't from a lack of ideas or material. I have to purge my mind to see clearly. Okay, I can proceed. This past week has been such a whirlwind. The weather was super windy one day and -6 degrees F with snow showers the next. Despite our furnace pumping out hot air, it was cool inside our home! I wore a layer of long-johns under my Cuddleduds. Then over them, I had a thick sweater. Comfortable and toasty.
There's good and bad news:
The federal employees are back to work! Thirty-five days after closing down because of the non-agreement between our president and Congress, the almost 1 million Federal employees returned to their jobs. However, they've only been funded for three weeks. I swear, I don't know what's behind all of this turmoil.
Our family has lost two matriarchs in South America. The first, Esperanza Rodriguez de Cordova, died around the 19th of January and was my hubster's uncle Luis' widow. She was ethnic Han Chinese and only three generations removed from Canton. Her family, whose surname originally was Chan, adopted the surname of the ship's captain. That surname? Rodriguez.
The second death was a beloved sister to my husband, Alicia Cordova Bulgarin de Moran. She passed away on the 25th of January and was buried the next day. That's what they do down in the tropics, no hanging about. My husband was deeply pained by her death and when he called Alicia's son to share condolences with him, they both broke down. But the ladies now rest with God.
There's good and bad news:
The federal employees are back to work! Thirty-five days after closing down because of the non-agreement between our president and Congress, the almost 1 million Federal employees returned to their jobs. However, they've only been funded for three weeks. I swear, I don't know what's behind all of this turmoil.
Our family has lost two matriarchs in South America. The first, Esperanza Rodriguez de Cordova, died around the 19th of January and was my hubster's uncle Luis' widow. She was ethnic Han Chinese and only three generations removed from Canton. Her family, whose surname originally was Chan, adopted the surname of the ship's captain. That surname? Rodriguez.
The second death was a beloved sister to my husband, Alicia Cordova Bulgarin de Moran. She passed away on the 25th of January and was buried the next day. That's what they do down in the tropics, no hanging about. My husband was deeply pained by her death and when he called Alicia's son to share condolences with him, they both broke down. But the ladies now rest with God.
Monday, January 21, 2019
Changing my blog's name again
May God bless your day today, Reader!
I had an interesting weekend but I can't share all of it with you. Disappointment was a key word in my vocabulary. Our metro area was meant to get plunging temperatures, freezing rain, and blowing winds and snow. I am thankful it did not snow much, probably because the temperature was at least 8 degrees Fahrenheit Sunday. The cold came into our wee house even though it is a snuggy place. That's how cold it was and is.
Now to the matter of changing my blog's name again...I felt that the words "approaching a new page" didn't flow in my thoughts the way I felt they should. I kept thinking them over and wondering what exactly I'm trying to say. I want you, my Reader, to unfold, discover, or learn something from my modest blog.
I had an interesting weekend but I can't share all of it with you. Disappointment was a key word in my vocabulary. Our metro area was meant to get plunging temperatures, freezing rain, and blowing winds and snow. I am thankful it did not snow much, probably because the temperature was at least 8 degrees Fahrenheit Sunday. The cold came into our wee house even though it is a snuggy place. That's how cold it was and is.
Now to the matter of changing my blog's name again...I felt that the words "approaching a new page" didn't flow in my thoughts the way I felt they should. I kept thinking them over and wondering what exactly I'm trying to say. I want you, my Reader, to unfold, discover, or learn something from my modest blog.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
It has been a few weeks since my last post because I took a break. My husband and I didn't go anywhere. He needed to rest his body. I didn't go to the gym. We did not go out to eat or to see the Christmas lights on the Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri.
Mario and I usually go see our daughter, Renny, and her new family in the Sunshine State at least once a year. We go see two other daughters in the state reknown for its crabbing whenever possible but at least every 18 months or try to coordinate our visits to go in one huge swathe through different regions in the US. Between us we have 6 daughters, so we have plenty of kiddos to visit.
This year for New Year's Eve we went to our oldest daughter's house and got to eat a wonderful meal and visit until around 10 pm. when we went home and Mario went to bed. I stayed up to see the New year in when the neighbors' fireworks kindly let me know 2019 had been ushered in. So Happy New Year to you, Faithful Reader O' My Blog.
Mario and I usually go see our daughter, Renny, and her new family in the Sunshine State at least once a year. We go see two other daughters in the state reknown for its crabbing whenever possible but at least every 18 months or try to coordinate our visits to go in one huge swathe through different regions in the US. Between us we have 6 daughters, so we have plenty of kiddos to visit.
This year for New Year's Eve we went to our oldest daughter's house and got to eat a wonderful meal and visit until around 10 pm. when we went home and Mario went to bed. I stayed up to see the New year in when the neighbors' fireworks kindly let me know 2019 had been ushered in. So Happy New Year to you, Faithful Reader O' My Blog.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Meredith
The Southwestern border city in Texas where I was born and grew up in is as far from the wee toon (now engulfed by the major city close by) in Scotland where my mother was born, grew up, and met and married my dad as can be. But the Texas city is where my mom passed on the Irish stories she had heard from her mother, Elizabeth, nicknamed Lily.
As mom would comb out my long dark hair after washing it, I learned about Gubby Flynn, the Toothless Wonder; the Leprechauns and their pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow; and others. The story that scared me the most, though, was the one where she encountered the Banshee in all its shrieking majesty! By throwing a penny piece at it, my grandmother took the wind out of its wails!
Mommy told me her mother was from County Armagh in Northern Ireland but didn't know the name of her hometown. I knew what she looked like because we had photographs but I never met her because she died in Scotland when I was 3 years old. I used to pick "flowers" from what I now know is crabgrass for her.
Mom was able to tell me about her maternal grandparents, Robert and his wife Mary. In Ireland he was an officer of the Orange Lodge and apparently carried his membership with him in Scotland. In Scotland, he worked for a chemical works where he eventually lost his leg and life to the "dry gangrene." As he was dying in his bed, a black dog, which he saw, was in his wee garden. He is said to have said, 'Wait for me, Mary, I'm coming to ye.'
Mom didn't know what her grandmother's maiden name was. I wrote to my mother's sister, Aunt Sheila, did she know her grandmother's maiden name? No. Did she know the name of the town my grandmother was from? When she wrote back, she had written the name of the town in her letter. Jubilantly, I looked it up in an Atlas! Well, uh, there were two places in Ireland that were similar to that name but none in County Armagh. Some time later, I was able to find the town and realized that Aunt Sheila was writing the name phonetically as she heard it pronounced, Caddagh, not how it was spelled, Keady. I was also able to tell my mother what her maternal grandmother's maiden name was. It was on my gran's death certificate. In Scotland it was spelled one way, in Ireland, it is spelled another. Phonetically it is the same name but does show that my gran's ancestors were of Scots and English plantation stock. If you want to know her maiden name, private message me.
As mom would comb out my long dark hair after washing it, I learned about Gubby Flynn, the Toothless Wonder; the Leprechauns and their pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow; and others. The story that scared me the most, though, was the one where she encountered the Banshee in all its shrieking majesty! By throwing a penny piece at it, my grandmother took the wind out of its wails!
Mommy told me her mother was from County Armagh in Northern Ireland but didn't know the name of her hometown. I knew what she looked like because we had photographs but I never met her because she died in Scotland when I was 3 years old. I used to pick "flowers" from what I now know is crabgrass for her.
Mom was able to tell me about her maternal grandparents, Robert and his wife Mary. In Ireland he was an officer of the Orange Lodge and apparently carried his membership with him in Scotland. In Scotland, he worked for a chemical works where he eventually lost his leg and life to the "dry gangrene." As he was dying in his bed, a black dog, which he saw, was in his wee garden. He is said to have said, 'Wait for me, Mary, I'm coming to ye.'
Mom didn't know what her grandmother's maiden name was. I wrote to my mother's sister, Aunt Sheila, did she know her grandmother's maiden name? No. Did she know the name of the town my grandmother was from? When she wrote back, she had written the name of the town in her letter. Jubilantly, I looked it up in an Atlas! Well, uh, there were two places in Ireland that were similar to that name but none in County Armagh. Some time later, I was able to find the town and realized that Aunt Sheila was writing the name phonetically as she heard it pronounced, Caddagh, not how it was spelled, Keady. I was also able to tell my mother what her maternal grandmother's maiden name was. It was on my gran's death certificate. In Scotland it was spelled one way, in Ireland, it is spelled another. Phonetically it is the same name but does show that my gran's ancestors were of Scots and English plantation stock. If you want to know her maiden name, private message me.
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
It's Begun To Look A Lot Like Carismus!!
I haven't written for a while but I find it hard to open up sometimes. The holiday season has begun and I won't be doing a lot of shopping this season. My husband and I aren't flyingor driving anywhere to visit any of our daughters and their families. I find that I am not keen to put up any decorations although I have put a wreath on the door.
Despite it not being winter yet, we have had a blizzard and various other types of precipitation that discourage me from setting foot outside if I can avoid it, and avoid it I do. I have to force myself to go to the gym but once I am there I really enjoy it.
I used to love drinking hot apple cider, eating Dutch windmill cookies with almonds, and making Christmas decorations. My girls were under 10 and we lived in Old Town Alexandria. There wasn't a lot of money for real decorations or toys. We were blessed by our family, including my former in-laws, at the holidays. If not for our family, Christmas would have been very grim indeed.
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