Month: April 2014

Connecting the Dots (A Guy Named Roger)

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If there is one person I would ever consider leaving my current life for,  it would be for a drummer named Roger. It was 1984 when my sister showed me a video of five fab Brits performing on a stage with flashing lights and a fake waterfall pouring out of a giant screen onto their fans.  From the moment I saw The Reflex I was entranced.  Who are they?  What is that all about?  But most importantly.  Who. Is.  That? My sister had this poster in her bedroom.  I used to stand in front of it staring directly into Roger’s eyes.  I know… I know… My sister and her friends were of the Simon or John camps.  That was fine.  You can have them.  I was alone in my Roger camp.  But I knew, even then, that he was the finer choice, the one with longevity the one who would become more charming and more handsome.  They’ll see, I thought to myself.  They’ll see. I liked that he didn’t talk much in group interviews.  I …

Playing Grown Up

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Little girl playing dress up at teatime.  Photo ℅ Jennifer Little of Sugar Photography When Husband and I were looking for a home to buy four and a half years ago, we found a wonderful old craftsman, lovingly restored and updated with plenty of space and a large yard  in our coveted neighborhood, a suburb just a few stops from the city.  While walking through the upstairs sunroom connecting two of the bedrooms, Husband said to me, “So, your mom will stay in that bedroom,” pointing to the door, “and then can hang out and read in this nice space,” gesturing to the sofa against the windows, “while the kids play,” motioning to the floor, “since they”ll probably share this other room,” pointing to the second adjacent bedroom. At the time of that conversation, we had a clear idea of what we wanted our future to be, and were planning to live in a way that would welcome and accommodate that vision.  At the time, we were not expecting children, nor was my newly widowed mother even slightly …

Style and Musings

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Bold Brilliant Beautiful You – April  Do Something Bold It’s just a party really.  And I love a good party. This April for Bold Brilliant Beautiful You, I knew what I was going to write about as soon as the group was prompted to  “do something bold for ourselves we wouldn’t normally do.”   I knew right away that my bold move was the Style and Musings event I collaborated on last week.  To give you a bit of background, please click here. Photos by #thanksjonny using an iPhone 5 Now, hosting a shindig is not a problem.  I really like providing a good time for great company, though I have admittedly not entertained at home in a while.  I like to get people together, I love the planning, the decorating, the cooking, the anticipation, etc, and mostly I enjoy seeing loved ones old and new sharing a drink, a laugh, and a moment or two together.  This is in my personal life.  As a blogger though, we all know how crazy private I (sort of) am. …

Snippets Of My Week #1

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  As the Easter season comes to an end, I am reminded of the blessings I have and those day to day moments that make me smile.  These are some of the happy snippets from my week. All pictures were taken by me, unless otherwise indicated. Follow me on Instagram (@blogger_bp) to see more!         I started cooking again– it’s been a while.  I have been surviving on green smoothies, take out Pho, lettuce wrapped Super Duper burgers, and Amy’s Organic vegetable soups for the past weeks.  Wielding a kitchen knife and  hitting the farmers’ markets again has felt Oh-so-right … Even the simplest homemade dishes, when prepared with my hands, make me feel like I’ve come home.            I wish I could say I found my original P.O. Box key after misplacing it for a few weeks, but having it replaced was good enough.   Since the stern postal worker who warned me I’d lose it months back when she saw me casually toss my key into my bag …

The Eyes Have Had It

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“Stop making that face.” Don’t squint. Stop rolling your eyes. Always sleep on your back. Never rub your eyes even when they are itchy. Remove all makeup before bed.  No exceptions. Use non medicated eyedrops for dry eyes. Use under eye cream. Use under eye gel. Use sunscreen under your eyes. Don’t touch the area around your eyes. Massage around your eyes. Make sure you are gentle with your eyes. Growing up my mother had warned me about my expressiveness potentially being hazardous for my looks.  I don’t do “poker face” very well.  My whole face moves while I talk, my lips curl when I am self conscious, my brows move up and down while I listen and I look every which way as I think.  I am now about the age my mom must have been when she started telling me to stop doing all of that, and frankly, I get it.  She was right.  No, it’s not because I have a daughter whose reactions drive me crazy, whose eye rolls push my buttons. …

Lessons from My Laundry

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If there is something that I have been figuring out this week (and aren’t I always figuring out something)   is that things seem to fall into place right when you take a breath.  I wonder if it’s the way laundry feels, being tousled and turned in the washing machine.   Front loaded or not, it is still disorienting for the clothes, even though it is supposed to be gentler than a conventional machine.  They get whipped around, first hot, then cold, drenched, drained, soaked, rinsed, and spun once more.  All in the effort of getting them clean and back to normal.  I wonder if the clothes are like me, knowing that the wash is a periodic part of life that gets us back to our cores while testing our strength and resilience.  Delicates or not, the laundry can’t wait for the drum to stop and for the long awaited time to hang out on the drying rack to commence. Real time photo of my laundry drying on our trusted rack…the most relaxing period in …

You Just Need to Ask

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Photo source: Carin Olsson My inbox greeted me this morning with an email from my old friend, Hamburgirl, that charming, spontaneous, loving lady who became my friend many moons ago and has stayed close to my heart though we haven’t shared continents in over at least a decade and a half. “bp!! How are you??”  the note began very casually.  She shortly recapped the past two weeks saying she had been home alone with her children while her husband was away for work.  The younger child had been ill the whole time and   ” …  very generously shared her sickness with me :(“ She continued, “On that note, my cousin will be in Paris next week and given my last two challenging weeks as a single sick mama, I am now considering a quick escape from life and a couple days in Paris.  I am thinking of going for two-three days.  I know you’re in another time zone, but thought I’d still ask ’cause nothing happens without asking!  Perhaps you are free and can …

What I Need

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Bold Brilliant Beautiful You. Month 3. What is it that I need? This is dedicated especially to you,  my fellow Bold Brilliant Beautiful You participants.  We all need not compare the importance and relevance of our own needs to the next person’s.  I think that is what was hard for many of us and why on the very last day of March I am not the only member writing her third installment of #bbby posts.If you have been following my blog this month, you know that I have been simultaneously cryptic and frank about what I need.  But there is much that I still need today.   Moving into spring, this topic is excellent because I am thinking what needs to be done in line with my work as a writer, blogger and regular person in her daily life.  If we don’t take the time to think about what we need, we can just keep going in circles.  So I thank you, Amy Christie, for giving us this exercise, because in it, I am finding focus. January …