Hallmark

Big confession! Another guilty pleasure. Hallmark Christmas movies!

Totally sappy. Completely unbelievable. Undeniably gag-level sweetness. Too-good-to-be-true beautiful people who rescue abandoned animals, save lost souls, volunteer endlessly and have the cutest, best behaved children and loving extended families and friends. They live in Thomas Kinkade worthy villages and towns, in warm, inviting and perfectly decorated homes and bake delicious cookies and pies. All movies are complete with happy endings, Christmas miracles, and of course, romance.  What's not to love?

I've seen two this week already and have another scheduled on the DVR.  You fergeen me this small innocent pleasure?  C'mon it's Christmas time!  Even a Jewish maidel like myself can lose herself in the wish-it-were-real world of Hallmark movies!

;-)

Thanks Giving Part Two

I hear that employees are being "forced to work on Thanksgiving" or risk being fired. Many are upset and venting their anger online. There was a link to an article about this on Yahoo but the article has been taken down, probably because it annoyed an advertiser.

Oh boo-hoo. Sorry but that's my take on this.

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on how grateful we are for what we have.  It's a time for some introspection (something you can do alone and anywhere) and not just gluttony and festivities.  

A time to remember there are soldiers overseas, and police and fire and 911 dispatchers and hospital workers at their posts. 

A time to remember that 99% of the world would gladly trade places with you, living in America and employed.

It's a time to remember that it is the customers flooding into your store that allow you to have a paycheck and that the turkey and sweet potatoes and your family and friends will still be waiting for you when you get off work.

I'm for putting the "Thanks" back in Thanksgiving...

;-)

The Story of the Jews

Two DVDs arrived from Netflix yesterday: British historian Simon Shama's The Story of the Jews.  After watching just two of the five episodes I realized the following:

I didn't know as much about Jewish history as I thought I did.

No matter which country Jews found themselves in, eventually (maybe hundreds of years later) they would persecuted, marginalized, massacred and/or forced to leave (could it happen here??)

Being different is risky. Shunning the practices of your stronger neighbors breeds contempt. 

Sticking together gets you through a lot and going through hard times can unify and fortify you.   Also what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

The survival of the Jews through the millenniums is truly the most miraculous phenomena in the entire history of the world.

And, of course, I am proud to be a Jew...

Cold Case

I just finished re-reading Michael Connelly's City of Bones.  I got the urge to find it again because Amazon TV has a pilot called Bosch, named of course for the protagonist in Connelly's books.  When I saw the free pilot and realized it was the start of City of Bones, I decided I could not wait until "sometime in 2015" for the rest of the series to be released. Not to mention the fact that I don't have Amazon Prime and thus may never see the rest of the episodes unless I ante up $90, hahaha.


The book did not disappoint and truth be told, I only remembered one (unimportant) scene and certainly not the plot or the who was the murderer.  I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other books I'd enjoy "the second time around".

City of Bones is a bit like a cold case; the bones in question have been buried for 25 years. Since it was published in 2002 - and I'm sure I read it then - it has only been "buried" to me for about half that time. Time to unearth more old goodies that I may have forgotten!

;-)

But I Know...

There is no getting around it.  I have become lazy and lethargic and even (gasp!) slightly slothful in my retirement bliss. OK so I know I wanted to take it easy for awhile after the last super-charged year of moving, shopping for the house, seeing hubby through his bout with Prednisone, meeting new friends and neighbors, doing home improvements, getting settled in, coping with frightening world events and taking a breather to be thankful. But I am now ready to embark on a brand new mindset and a more even handed daily existence.

First up, a little more physical activity and a little more spiritual balance too.  I'm exploring my (many) options for Zen meditation and it's back to low impact strength training for me (I was sidelined by a slight sprain for several weeks). Also it's back to blogging, a great outlet for whatever is bothering me.

But most of all, I want to dump these (thankfully few) extra pounds I've put on due to the above mentioned slothful ways.  If I am kind to myself I will chalk them up to the stresses of the last twelve months. But as Jimmy Buffet sings: "but I know, it's my own damn fault". Hahaha.

;-)

What Alice Forgot

It's feast or famine when it comes to my reading list. I either have nothing to read but the daily newspaper or I have a wealth of riches. It does seem like the most popular authors make sure to bring out their new offerings in time for Christmas gift giving so this month I am feasting.

I just finished John Grisham's latest, Gray Mountain, and have just started Michael Connelly's The Burning Room. Up next will be Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot (not a new release, it's been out there since 2011).

Alice has received a bump on the noggin and has somehow lost the last ten years of her life. Instead of being a young wife and madly in love with her husband she is facing the big 4-0 and a nasty divorce. She also has misplaced two of her three children, something I'm sure all mothers would like to do from time to time (joke).

I find the thought of waking up to find myself ten years in the future terrifying.  I'm sure Alice agrees. I can only hope and pray that 75 will look as good to me as 65 does!

A special shout out to the folks who bring me these wonderful stories. You are truly appreciated.

;-)

A Supermarket in The Villages

Allen Ginsberg

Today is the Royal Oak Beatnik Coffee House, the neighborhood social event (80 people coming!) that I have carefully planned and coordinated since volunteering in May. There will be folk singers plus our resident talent, black berets for everyone, a pot luck supper, fake cigarettes and (electric) candles on the tables. And Me. I'm doing a poetry reading.

I plagiarized (bastardized) a poem by Allen Ginsberg (the poet laureate of the Beat Generation  - I saw him in person in the sixties at the University of Illinois) called "A Supermarket in California". My version is re-titled "A Supermarket in The Villages".  I've included the original version with the centerpieces along with a short dictionary of Beatnik slang. Here is my effort, wish me luck!

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Harold Schwartz, as I walked down the

streets under the live oak trees with a headache looking at the early morning sun.

In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for breakfast, I went into the neon fruit
Spanish Springs Farmers Market, dreaming of your enumerations!

What peaches and what mangoes! Whole families shopping at The Villages!  Aisles
full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, even grand-babies in the tomatoes!  And you, Jerry Carter, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

I saw you, John Johnson, happy old golfer, poking among the pastries and eyeing the baguettes.

I heard you asking questions of each: Who kneaded the dough? What price are the
bananas? What’s for dessert?

I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of honeybells following you Cathy Kobe, and followed in my imagination by Villages Security.

We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy, tasting
freely offered samples, possessing every ripe delicacy, and never paying the cashier.

Where are we going, Harold Schwartz? The vendors close in an hour. Which way does your golf cart point tonight?

I gaze upon your statue in the waters and dream of our odyssey in the Farmers Market.

Will we walk all day and night through the streets of stores?  Will we sit on lonely benches while our women shop at Chicos? The trees add shade to shade, lights are going on in the Square and soon we'll both be Line Dancing.

Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America we left behind in frigid cold climates, remembering our old cars parked in driveways covered with snow, home to our silent former cottages?

Ah, dear Villagers, friends of Royal Oak, what flavor of Hagen-Daz did you have when the Boat Captain poled his ferry and you stood on a Sunset bank watching the boat disappear on the blue waters of Lake Sumter? 

;-)

Hope and Change

The US is REDDER today thanks to the severe trouncing of Democrats at yesterday's mid-term elections. Republicans are celebrating today but I know sobriety will kick in soon as they face dauntless challenges. As we all know, if they don't produce in the next two years the balance of power will shift once again. If I've learned anything following politics for decades it's that we always Hope and we always believe Change will solve our problems.

I hope for incredibly stronger relations with Israel. I hope the Keystone pipeline will finally be approved. I hope there will be incentives for work versus welfare and that our borders will be made secure. I hope corporate tax reform will repatriate money and jobs back to the US. I hope there will be additional choices put into Obamacare such as modified, more affordable "catastrophic" plans. I hope we will do whatever it takes to eradicate barbaric terrorism, genocide and rape.

May God Bless all of our Senators, Congressmen and Congresswomen, and our Governors with wisdom and common sense.

Hope and Change (especially Change) was not such a bad slogan after all...

;-)

Thanks Giving

We closed on our new home the day before Thanksgiving last year and it was exactly a month from today that the movers arrived. So I mark December 3, 2013 as the day we officially "settled in".  

This last month before our one year anniversary in our new home is special to me so I respectfully dedicate the entire month of November 2014 to giving thanks.

I am oh-so-grateful for my wonderful life, my awesome husband, for the beauty I see and for the security I feel around me, for wonderful new and dear old friends, for invitations to play games and go out, and for events to look forward to. I'm grateful for our health and a general feeling that all is well. I am grateful that past failures and weird life detours did not impact our happiness in these later years. I'm grateful for Florida and The Villages and finding joy in our synagogue. 

Happy and thankful  me...

;-)

Utopia

H. Gary Morse, R.I.P.

Gary Morse, the developer of The Villages, passed away last week. Several newspaper obituaries referred to the result of his lifetime work as a "Senior Utopia". Here's a quote from ABC News:  (The Villages) is unmatched in both the breadth of its vision and its scale: 600 holes of golf, dozens of restaurants and stores, and so many activities — archery to scrapbooking to Spanish classes — that it almost seems like summer camp for seniors. Residents zip along in souped-up golf carts to town squares that look like Hollywood sets, downing cheap margaritas and dancing in gazebos before returning to homes that range from simple ranches under $90,000 to mansions topping $1 million.

Oh I agree, this place is Utopia. I consider it our well deserved reward for a lifetime of hard work, saving, perseverance and trying to do the "right thing". But it's not the number of golf holes, the nightly live entertainment or the relatively inexpensive cost of living (at least compared to our previous lives in Chicago and South Florida). It's not even the fact that my calendar is already filled with fun things to do and a thick weekly "recreation guide" offers even more.

Nope, my Utopia is great because it is filled with people who (apparently) like us. A friend who checked the next day to see how I was when I had to cancel dinner out and services. Neighbors who call to see if I'd like to go to a movie or join them in an impromptu event. Friends who pick up a tchatchke for me that they think I'll like. People who wave at us as we pass their homes in our golf cart. I think I could knock on any neighbor's door for help if it was ever needed.

That's my Utopia. Thank you Gary Morse for making it all happen for us and for the thousands of other "happy campers" in The Villages.

;-)