The Treasure of a Phone Call

I used to have a phone just like this

Though I am not a teenager, I've found myself in the habit lately of texting rather than calling a friend or loved one. Sometimes I even get frustrated when I can’t text them, like my Dad, who doesn’t even have a cell phone.

It’s like I want to avoid the connection, the possibility that a short phone call could turn into something drawn out. The friend I call to see if she’s going to yoga tonight could be 10 minutes of us discussing Etsy or something one of use ate the other night. EEEE-GADS!

Catching up with a friend from back home becomes a few Facebook messages or an email instead of a half hour ear to ear. I had to stop myself and realize that it’s so silly to think my time is so precious I can’t give up the control to let a conversation happen. Especially in this day and age when so many conversations are electronic and actual talking is considered obsolete.

So I am making more phone calls. It’s always a pleasure once the conversation starts and I admit, often I am the one who can’t stop. It’s something I really have missed. Each day for the rest of the year, ears will be ringing as the phone chimes with me on the other end and you better pick up!

Who Are You Going to Call?

The Treasure of Time Well Spent

Take some time to spend with a friend. It’s easier said than done for many of us with busy schedules pulling us in many directions, but it’s very important.

Make a lunch or dinner date with a friend you haven’t seen in a while and before it’s over get another date on the calendar for in a month or two. Go shopping with a pal and help each other pick out Christmas gifts or better yet each donate a few bucks to spend on a child or family in need and go shopping together to see what you can find. Or invite a friend over to bake Christmas cookies to munch on at the time and to share with others. It doesn’t have to be a big production, just sometime to spend together.

Today, my friend Irene and I went shopping for children’s books at the local book barn. We’re going to donate these tomes as part of a literacy project in our area. While she covered the wee ones, I focused on the teens and tweens with some classics – Jane Austen and Edgar Allan Poe – as well as some science fiction, mystery and a few teen romance. It was a great way to spend time together while also helping someone in need.

Who do you want to spend some time with?

The McGovern Girls - 40 Days of Thankfulness (conclusion)

Tuttie and Patty - The McGovern Girls 

The final day of my blog posts for 40 Days of Thankfulness is all about the McGovern Girls – Patty and Tuttie. By weird happenstance, I met these ladies when I was dating their brother. Though my relationship with Mic didn’t last, my friendship with his sisters did.

Both have been with me through thick and thin providing guidance, advice, a kind word and a beer whenever necessary. Two women that are so much a like and yet so different at the same time, they have given me a lot to be thankful for.

My last night out with the McGovern Girls and my sister Cricket too - First Friday Feb 2013 at The Independent.

Tuttie is like Switzerland. Nothing really gets to her – her theme may be “Stay Calm and Carry On”. She has one of the biggest hearts always helping someone out whether it’s a visit to an old friend, a donation to a charitable organization, getting up in the middle of the night (it seems) to take part in the Komen walk or just listening to me babble about the surrealness of my new life. However things are, good or bad, Tuttie has the solution – “Let’s do shots!”

Patty’s theme, on the other hand, would be “Party On!” with index fingers and pinkies in the air. She is quite a pal taking care of my most precious treasures: my kitties and puppies, and even being the conduit to me becoming a puppy mommy. I will always remember the day she told me with dread that she thought her pug Fiona could be pregnant. My response, “for your sake I hope she’s not, but for mine, I hope she is.” She was and I got two of the most precious treasures in my life Finn and Polly. I will always be so thankful to Patty for giving me a family. And for giving me timeless advice in the warning, “The crazies are out!”

Fiona, the new mommy and in that brood are Polly and Finn.

These ladies are some of the most fun friends I have whether getting kicked out of a concert, enjoying burgers at El Cap, making time to spend an afternoon with me before I moved, and making sure to see me when I only had a couple days back home. I love them both so much and thought they would be the perfect end (for now) to this thankful project. Kisses. 

NYC, The Doctor and Knitting – 40 Days of Thankfulness

March 31, 2007: After spending a long day riding the bus from Penn Station, shopping at IKEA and a bus ride back, with cocktails and foodie things interspersed, I found myself at 8pm not wanting to leave Patrick’s apartment yet again. I was comfortably buzzed from pomegranate margaritas and Old Fashions and was ready to just relax and begin our adventure again tomorrow.

My pal Patrick

Patrick suggested we get comfy in his Brooklyn abode and watch Doctor Who (a new season was starting) and he would teach me to knit. The stage was set and my world changed forever!

Not only did I get hooked on the Doctor after telling Patrick “I don’t want to watch that stuff, it’s too boring and geeky (too geeky for me – please).” I watched the season opener with David Tennant and his new companion Martha Jones and I was hooked for life. 

Paul's early Christmas gift - a hand knit stocking all his own!

Knitting wasn’t as easy to fall in love with. Patrick taught me the basics of casting on and how to knit, but I kept messing up (remember the cocktails beforehand) and getting frustrated. But I did carry on and keep trying. I had that summer and fall free so I would stay up into the wee hours watching Netflixed past Doctors and knitting scarves. Now in Florida there isn’t much call for scarves, but I knit them anyway.

Over the years I have learned many more stitches and techniques moving from scarves and headbands to handbags, socks, hats, jewelry and fingerless gloves. I have whipped up wraps, played with a variety of yarns and cussed my way into and out of some intricate entanglements.  

Today I take my knitting almost everywhere I go from meetings to lunch to sitting in Paul’s office and spending time together. When possible my afternoons are filled with old TV shows and lots of yarn.

Close up of Paul's Christmas stocking

Recently I started my own Etsy Store to share with the general public my creations. It’s something I love to do and it would be great if I could make some cash from it. And with our current locale, I have a lot of need for different knitted wonders, including scarves and hats, plus also big comfy socks for cold winter nights, dog sweaters, and Christmas stockings.

Polly sporting the dog sweater I made her for this season

I dare say my love for knitting now outweighs my love for the Doctor, but both are travels through space (interesting imaginings) and time (vintage patterns) experiencing wonderful adventures (new techniques, new supplies, new stitches, new tricks) and all with my trusty companions (Polly and Millie on the couch next to me as I knit and purl). The only difference is instead of a sonic screwdriver, I have double-pointed knitting needles.

Dog sweater close up

Stay Calm and Knit On!

I'm Talkin' 'Bout My Best Friend - 40 Days of Thankfulness

My wedding day with my only Bride's Maid

Yesterday I shared with you how thankful I am for my friends Heidi and Paul, I would say my Best Friend Couple. Today is all about Guy – the best friend anyone could ever have (and sometimes the biggest pain).

Guy and I have been friends for more than 20 years and have gone through thick and thin – or as he likes to call it Playing the “Can You Top It?” Game (this title actually came from a high school friend I had who called me up out of the blue one day about 10 years after high school and rattled off her accomplishments ending with “can you top it?” – weird.)

Can You Top It? thankfully is not a game based on who could have the worst or better day and trying to one-up someone, it’s just a way Guy and I share what is going on with us since we don’t share stories on social media and try to make our conversations count.

You can expect that through more than 20 years, we’ve had a lot to talk about. Like siblings some of the things we say to each other aren’t always the most pleasant and like an old married couple we can bicker and nag one another for hours. But … when one of us needs anything, the other is there. We go out of our ways to help one another and never complain about it. Our love is so deep that we had agreed to grow old together if we didn’t find our soul mates, and voila – Guy met Randy (again) two days before I met Paul and we all lived happily ever after.

Guy and I have our own vocabulary, our own euphemisms, our own experiences and of course, our own squabbles. Guy would write a song about this to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas but here’s my list:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … not even putting me in his Twelve Days of Christmas song so many years ago to give his Pittsburgh friends and family updates of what was going on

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … being my companion on a trip to Alaska and doing a half marathon for charity

On the tenth day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … the chance to scare him and give him nightmares just by mentioning the movie “The Exorcist”

On the ninth day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … Lots of laughs over movie quotes only him and I get – “There’s something nasty in the woodshed”, “Lightning, lightning she said”, “I can’t do it”, and “Day Four”

On the eighth day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … hours of watching season 4 of Celebrity Big Brother on the way to Alaska, while there, on the way back and for days afterward

On the seventh day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … his time to drive me to my new home in Ohio

On the sixth day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … New York Christmas windows and a trip up the Empire State Building

On the fifth day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … the comfort I needed when my kitty Boo passed and when I was devastated by losing Finn

On the fourth day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … letting me be there for him when people he loved so dearly (his father and Steve especially) passed on

On the third day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … The best Halloween Parties ever!!!

On the second day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … Being the only Bride’s Maid at my wedding

On the first day of Christmas, Guy gave to me … The chance to show him how much I loved him when he was in the hospital.

There are so many more things, but this just gives you a taste of why I am so thankful Guy is my friend.