Isolating Media

I think my computer and smartphone or more specifically, social medias, are keeping me from having true friendships.  One the one hand, it is a pleasure to be able to keep up with friends and family via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (still haven't completely adopted "the twitter" though) and even this blog.  I like seeing and hearing what people out there are doing.  On the other hand, it gives a false sense of closeness.   I know what you are doing but we really haven't talked  to each other.

We post pictures on social media.  The pictures are edited, making our lives look better than they are.  If you look at all of my Facebook or Instagram pictures, my life is full of beautiful places, adventures, happy people and good times.  I want that life!  Of course, I haven't posted any pictures of me doing laundry, sweeping floors, cleaning the kitchen, watching TV, reading, stressing out over the wedding, or the mundaneness of my every day life....who wants to see that?  What you see is my life...the edited version.  I am sure what I see is your life...the edited version!

Writing this blog also creates a false sense of closeness. While you sit and read what goes on in my life and my mind we don't really sit and talk about these things on a deeper more personal level.  The blog can even stifle some friendships.  When I hang out with friends who read the blog they already know what has been going on in my life so it can abbreviate some conversations.  "Oh, I read that on the blog...."  end of conversation...next topic.  But, what I put down here is only a snippet of what goes on in my head, my life and my heart.  This is the stuff I feel might be interesting to read or if I'm lucky be thought provoking.  It happens.....once in a while.  It is a one way conversation though.

Is social media isolating me?

More and more recently, I find myself looking for those real connections.  I found myself having a pity party last week about friends lost and found.  You know how when you move to a new city and you have to fill out all the emergency forms for your children at school and have no one to put down in the "emergency contact" line?  I had a little moment trying to figure out which one of my Facebook friends I could put down in that slot.  Don't worry, I was quickly smacked back into reality by a few phone calls...yes, real phone calls from real people and some quality moments spent with friends.

Apparently I am not the only one to have these thoughts.  I googled this topic after I wrote this post....and hundreds of articles addressing the same topic popped up.  There goes my original thought.  A day late and a dollar short.  I didn't even do a random sampling of over 100 participants to come to this conclusion.  So, today I will go out and have some real human interaction with real people, have real conversations and try not to look at my smartphone or computer... too much.  There may be some photos worthy of posting on Facebook though.....it's a hard habit to break isn't it?

Let the Countdown Begin

Last weekend marked the official beginning of "The Wedding" countdown.  Reality set in big time last week.  Invitations have been mailed!  Responses are coming in! The bride's sisters came in town for a weekend of pre-wedding fun.  The girls had their bachelorette party Friday night while I stayed home... 

 and took care of this little guy.
 We did not
sing karaoke like the bride and her friends 
but we still had fun!

The wedding party threw a shower on Saturday evening, which made everything very real!  Watching the bride and groom open gifts while surrounded by their friends and family gave us a little taste of what is to come.  It was like a practice weekend for "The Wedding".  If this was any indication of how the next big weekend will go, it is going to be a great time!  Of course it is.....

Some observations.....

-The bride and groom really are a perfect match!  I have come to this conclusion after hearing their answers during the fun shower game the maid of honor (LG) put together.  Usually shower games are pretty lame but this one was informative as well as entertaining.  They had each answered a series of questions separately and then we got to figure out who gave which answers.  We all learned a little bit more about the bride and groom in the process!  Plus we got to play with tiaras and mustaches!

Looks like "she" said it!

Beersox cake!  Complete with
a Caged Yarn tag!

-We are all going to have to step up our game if we are going to make it through the whole wedding weekend.  We are out of practice for all day and all night socializing filled with eating and drinking....not to mention standing in heels!  I wish my daily life resembled the events of last weekend but alas, I live in an empty nest and have become very boring.  I think I should make it my mission to "train" for the wedding by going out every weekend and partying....or not!

-We cannot do enough planning!  All the planning we have done and will do are still not going to be enough to make the wedding weekend go without a hitch.  To quote one of my favorite SNL characters, "There's always something!".   This will necessitate the mantra of the weekend to be, "Go with the flow" or "Everything is going to be just fine".   We can plan all we want but there will be something that slips through the cracks or works out differently than we planned and despite our best efforts happened differently than we expected.  It's OK!  At the end of the day, the bride and groom will be married and that is all that matters!  The rest is icing!  (which is going to be delicious)

-The next six weeks are going to fly by!  My usual laid back approach to almost everything in life needs to step it up a notch or two and get busy!  One day at a time and one thing at a time and it will all get done, right?  

The happy couple!
Let the countdown begin!

Ask and You Shall Recieve

My Mother always used to tell me, "Ask! What's the worst that can happen?  They might say no?!".  She was very good about asking for things.  You want an extra 20% off that blouse, ma'am?  Sure!  She really did try to teach us to ask.  I just had a hard time learning that lesson.  I was afraid to ask. Unless it was about going to a party or on a date and then I was all about the asking!  Usually the fear of being rejected outweighed the benefit of getting whatever I was asking for, in my mind.  Luckily, I married a man who asks for the moon if he wants the stars and usually gets what he wants.  Exhibit A, he got me to marry him!  One more reason he is in sales and I am not!

To ask or not to ask....that is the question!

Recently, a group of friends (if you think this is you...it probably is) was sitting around a table discussing whether we call our banks, credit cards, cell phone carrier, etc. when we are charged an extra fee and request the fee be refunded.  I was clearly in the minority!  I guess I also choose friends who ask questions in addition to a spouse who does the asking!

There are countries where you are expected to bargain when you buy something.  I never like bargaining.  So much pressure....am I going too high and cheating myself or too low and insulting the seller?  I never know!  Too much pressure for me!  Just tell me how much it is and I'll decide if I want it or not.  Maybe I would get better at bargaining if I lived in one of these places and had to practice every day.

Recently, I found myself in a position to ask for something and I felt a little uncomfortable.  I decided to put on my big girl pants and go ahead and ask.  This takes a lot for me people ....don't judge.  Anyway, I received much more than I asked for!  What was I so afraid of?  If I hadn't asked, I would not have received.  A lesson I will continue to relearn my entire life.

Clues, Detours and Road Blocks

In honor of the Amazing Race beginning another season on Sunday, I will share my own personal amazing race from this past weekend.  TJ and I have been Amazing Race fans since the very first season in 2001 and even applied once....a very long time ago....to be on the show.  Now, you too, know one of my deepest secrets.  I have no idea why our very amateur video covering "the top 10 reasons we would be great on TAR" did not even get us an interview.  Ever since the show started, whenever I find myself in a bit of a travel challenge, I channel my inner AR contestant and power through the challenge.  There was that one time soon after 9/11 when I was in the Atlanta airport "the day the idiot ran back through security" and the airport was evacuated.  I ended up sleeping on the floor of the airport all night so I did not have to go back through the 3 hour security line in order to catch my flight in the wee hours of the next morning.  It was just easier to sleep on the floor than to go through that disaster again in a few hours.  Thankfully I had a coat for a blanket, a backpack for a pillow and newspaper for insulation.  Cozy!  I'm sure I would have won that leg of The Amazing Race!

TJ and I headed to NYC on Wednesday last week.  We were meeting our LG on Wednesday for dinner.  I was very excited about seeing her so imagine my surprise and disappointment when I arrived at the airport only to be told our flight was cancelled.  Not delayed....cancelled!  All of the options they gave us put us in NYC around 11 p.m. or midnight.  Too late for dinner with our LG.  As much as I wanted to, I did not cry in the airport.  I shifted into "momma bear needs to see her cub" mode.  TJ even suggested going home and flying out the next day.  No way, I was on a mission!  We chose the option that routed us through Chicago.  With a more than 3.5 hour layover I thought maybe, just maybe, we could get out earlier and  see our LG.  We landed in Chicago, exited our plane and I started looking.  Our original fight was going to Newark.  Right next to our arrival gate was a flight going to Laguardia in an hour.  I didn't really care which airport I flew into, I just needed to get to NYC.  I asked if there were seats available and there were.  We were put on the standby list which got us on the plane and into the city before 8 p.m.!!!  We managed to have dinner with our girl and there was peace and happiness once again!  Won another leg of TAR!

Rockefeller Center was jammed!  

The next leg of our race was to find TJ's grandmother's grave.  It is in Queens.  Easy.  Take a 40 minute subway ride to the second to last stop on the line.  Then catch a cab to the cemetery a mile and a half away, no problem.  Well maybe one problem.  When you get off at the second to last stop in Queens there are no cabs, we were not in Kansas anymore.  If I had known this I would not have worn my stylish riding boots.  Yeah...walking 3-4 miles in stylish riding boots is not that much fun.  I see comfortable walking shoes in my future!  Another complication was that the cemetery was huge!  It was also covered in snow.  We had a section number and plot number.  The section was easy to find but the plots numbers were under 2 feet of snow.  The nice cemetery worker helped us find the grave site and we tromped through the deep snow to find a historic landmark.

Great Grandfather, Great Grandmother, Grandfather and Grandmother

The rest of the trip involved melting snow, eating, drinking, and Carol King. NYC got a ton of snow this winter.  When it warmed up the snow went from white to black and melted quickly.  Underneath it all is a lot of ugly!

A lot of ugly snow.....

and a lot of just plain ugly.....

 We went on a quest for Broadway tickets and managed half price tickets to see "Beautiful, The Carol King Story".  All of us, "being of a certain age", really loved the music.  The play was beautiful...it made me feel like a natural woman and then we went up on the roof and felt the earth move under our feet!

Stay tuned as TAR goes to Steamboat Spring this weekend.  I hope I don't have to do a half pipe or a ski jump!

Creativity Rediscovered

There is something to be said about spending a day creating something.  I used to be a crafty person.  I used to sew and make stuff....a long time ago.  When I look back, I did most of my crafting when I had young children.  Somehow that just does not compute!  Who had time back then?  Somehow though, I managed to sew plenty of clothes for my girls, curtains for my windows, and create other needle crafts over the busiest years of my life.  What gives, besides the fact that I've become a lazy slob and the invention of the internet which seems to suck up a lot of my free time?

I know a lot of crafty people.  Some of them knit, some are artists, some sew, some do paper crafts and some are just generally crafty.  Crafting isn't dead I guess.  It's just been dormant in my life for a while.  I guess I haven't needed any new curtains lately and all of my girls are grown up and all of my grandchildren are grandsons who really don't wear smocked dresses.  I recently had the opportunity to smock a dress for a special little girl.  I agreed, hoping I would remember how to smock!  It's been a little while.  Well, it's just like riding a bike!  I also forgot how much I enjoy smocking!  I enjoy having something to keep my hands busy at night instead of a wine glass or food!

Today was one of those dreary, rainy, south Texas winter days that starts out 20 degrees warmer than it ends up.  I thought it was the perfect day to stay inside and finish putting the dress together.  I played CDs fresh out of the 90's and had myself a rockin' day making something!  My trusty dog never left my side....she didn't want to go outside either!  By the end of the day, I had listened to some of my favorite music and had something very pretty to show for my efforts.  Hmmm, maybe I should do more of this because there really is something to be said about spending a day creating!

A day or two or three.... well spent!

Give Me The Other Half of My Brain!

What to blog about this week?  That is the question.....  I could talk about Harry Connick Jr.'s awesomeness on American Idol or I could talk about planning the next great Mahoney wedding or maybe I could talk about sharing a brain with one of my sisters or I could just talk about the weather.
First the weather....

Park City, Utah
January 25, 2014
Note the lack of white stuff on the ground!

Back in Baton Rouge, LA,  Houston, TX and Atlanta, Georgia schools were cancelled, stores were closed, cars were sliding all over the icy freeways and people were in major panic mode or celebrating like children because of the snow and ice covering the ground.  When Houston cancels school twice in one winter because of ice and cold you know it is an unusual winter.  There are winters when the temperature does not even dip below freezing.  The world is upside down or at least sideways.

Last year we went on our our ski trip in mid March.  We usually have plenty of snow.  But, last year there wasn't much snow so we decided to plan this year for late January knowing it would be cold as (pick your favorite cold adjective) and there would be plenty of snow.  We plan and God laughs.  We arrived to temperatures in the 40's and no snow to speak of.  Luckily they had a good base on the mountain and we were still able to ski....just not in a foot of fresh powder.

Ahhh, there is some snow!

It was so nice and sunny and warm we sat out at the beach!

We enjoyed our sunny skies and comfortable temperatures...for skiing.  I'm glad we got out for those early days too because by Wednesday it was raining!  Raining in Park City, Utah in January.  Ick!  In all of my years I have never seen it rain there in the winter... I'm sure it does but not on my time!  The rain eventually turned to snow but conditions were not ideal.  We did get to ski on fresh snow Friday, but after being totally spoiled earlier in the week, it felt a lot like work skiing on that last day.  But who is complaining?  Well...maybe just a bit.

My sister and I realized, once again, that we must share a brain.  We have always had an uncanny way of wearing, buying, reading, saying, cooking, or thinking the same things.  We live in separate cities so it's not like we are together all of the time and get this through osmosis.  I am the oldest and she is the youngest.  Inevitably whenever we get together we show up wearing the same thing!

Did I mention how creatively we dress?

She showed up with a blouse she had just bought....I have the same exact one at home.  Definitely not the first time this has happened either!  I'm sure if you checked our closets we have many of the same clothes.  We had to start checking before we got dressed to see what the other was wearing so we did not look like twins....hehe.  I wish!  Aside from our uncanny ability to choose the same clothes we are the most alike of the four sisters.  We are also the ones who get referred to as "capable".  Some people may take this as a compliment but I'm not sure either of us does.  We have two sisters who excel, each in her own field.  We have no long suit but are "capable" of many things.  Maybe we excel at being "capable".  During dinner one night she cracked me up and said, "We share the same brain.... just think how smart we'd be if we had the other half of our brain!"  And then we watched American Idol and formed the Harry Connick Jr. "capable" sisters fan club!

Give me back the other half of my brain!

Quick To Judge

I got busted yesterday!  I caught myself in the act of being judgmental and the powers from above smacked me back down right off my high and mighty perch.  Just when I thought I was near perfect....bahahaha!

Let me explain....

I recently "graduated" from the 9 hole golf group to the 18 hole golf group.  It was time and a bunch of us "graduated" together so none of us had to make the move to the scary, competitive, serious 18 hole group alone.  Yes, we are in junior high school!  Anyway, our fears were quickly put to rest when they welcomed us with open arms.  They were very hospitable as we sat wide eyed and expectant at our first meeting.

One of our fears about joining the group was that we would be put in the back of the pack with the very slow golfers every week.  We may not be great golfers but we are definitely not slow golfers!  We always found ourselves catching up to their last groups on the course on Tuesdays and then having to wait for them on each hole. Our fear was that we would be in "that" group once we joined.

Yesterday, was our play day.  As I found my cart and the other two women I was assigned to play with that day I had a sinking feeling.  I knew one of the women from our 9 hole group, but the other looked like one of the "slow" playing women I had waited behind several times before.  I'll call her Golfer Gal. I figured my day was going to be an exercise in patience.

Off we went, in the gusting cold wind.  Perfect!  Cold... slow... golf....my favorite!  I watched and waited for our pace to be set.  None of us were playing especially well with all that wind and all those layers we were wearing.  Golfer Gal was no better or worse than either of us and not noticeably slower.  She was much older than either of us too.  There was about a 30 year age difference between Golfer Gal and the other girl and I was somewhere in the middle.  We were definitely an eclectic group.

Anyway, on the 4th hole our younger friend had to go and pick up her son at pre-school (yes, she is much younger!)because he was sick.  This left me and Golfer Gal to pair up and play the rest of the round together.  Two people will be a lot faster than three I figured .  Golfer Gal moved into my cart and we finally had a chance to visit with each other.  Well....that's when I got busted!

Golfer Gal mentioned that she had only played on our course three times!  Being an astute person, I figured that meant she was definitely not one of the slow bunch we always caught up to last season.  Shame on me!  As we visited in the cart I found out a lot about Golfer Gal and our worlds collided on at least three fronts, and by less than two degrees of separation.  She is new to the area.  She has lived here for less than a month.  We ended up having a delightful round of golf and I think I made a new friend. Plus, Golfer Gal has got game!

I can't help but think there was a much greater power at work yesterday.  I needed to be put in my place and I also needed to meet Golfer Gal.  I am definitely enjoying the new group and will from here on out withhold my judgment.  "Judge not lest ye be judged."  I can't imagine what they all think of me.  "That pushy 9 holer who plays fast and stares us down on every hole!"  Yikes!  I need to work on my golf demeanor.