a great gift...

 I do like to read, but I like books, fiction and non-fiction, but mostly fiction for escape reading, so when my daughter and son-in-law told me that they had bought me a subscription to "Reader's Digest" I was appreciative but not really thrilled.  I have never been an avid magazine reader, and suffered through an overdose of magazines some years ago.  After my husband died, I discovered, as the daily mail came, that he had subscribed to 28 magazines, mostly after he retired.  Rather than go through the process of trying to cancel those subscriptions, I just saved the magazines, and when I had a month's worth, took them to the VA hospital. They were thrilled to receive them and I was glad to get them out of the house.  Gradually all of the subscriptions ran out and I promised myself that I would never subscribe to another magazine.  All of that is to say that when I heard I would be receiving a magazine regularly I had visions of stacks of half read magazines piled up around my apartment.  Imagine my delight then when my first RD magazine arrived in the mail this week and I saw that it is only about half the size of the magazine I remember, and also comes only once every other month.  I can manage that.  I started reading this issues in short bursts during TV commercials, some of which go on almost longer than the program.  I've enjoyed the humor pieces and puzzles but also some really good articles.  I've read about progress in developing new cancer treatments, the hassles school and city librarians are going through with challenged books, and a report on a young man who had never piloted a plane, safely landing a plane when his pilot had a heart attack.  It also has a three page spread of recommended new books.  This is turning out to be a really good Christmas present.  Ho ho ho.

celebrate!!

 According to my west coast brother, today is "Yodel for Your Neighbors Day." While I have never been able to yodel, I do feel like standing on my balcony and yodeling for all my neighbors (if it wasn't so cold and if I didn't fear alienating everyone in the building) because I have something to celebrate.  Today the little first grader whom I have been tutoring since the beginning of the school year actually read a book to me.  Granted, it was a small, kindergarten level book with simple words, but he was putting together letter sounds to make words and sight reading some words like 'the' and 'see.'  I'm not taking the credit for this since I only see him one hour a week but I am so pleased that what he's been learning in class plus what he and I work on is starting to come together.  I have high hopes for this little guy.  Yodelodelodelodelo.....

a power suit??

 Years ago, when I was working in the business world, I learned that red is a power color.  When you were going to be in a negotiating position, it helped to wear a red tie (men) or red blazer (women).  I like red so I do wear it fairly often, but today, when I was wearing one of my favorite red jackets for church, I began to believe that there might be some truth in the power color idea.  During the morning, while I was at church, three different people complimented me on doing a good job, with helping with a meeting, reading part of a baptism liturgy, and having materials ready for another meeting.  I really appreciated their encouraging comments but was somewhat bemused. First, because the things I did were not anything unusual, and secondly because I was running on coffee, having not slept well the night before, and did not feel like I was doing anything particularly well.  Maybe I work best in a mental fog or maybe they were mercy compliments.  Or just maybe it was the illusion created by my now favorite red jacket.  Whatever the case, I'll take it.  If you see me wearing red a lot, you'll understand.

a true art form...

Today is "Local Quilt Shop Day."  While I'm not shopping for a quilt, I do love thinking about them.  I grew up with lovely quilts, some that were pieced by my grandmother and quilted by the Ladies Aid Society at our local church.  I remember their large quilting frame set up in the basement of the church.  I don't quilt but I do admire the beautiful quilts made by several of my friends and my daughter-in-law's mother, who has won several prizes with her quilts.  One of my favorite quilt memories involves an Amish made quilt.  During the few years that my husband and I and our children lived in south eastern Ohio, I belonged to a charitable sorority.  In addition to 'good deeds' we often took field trips with our husbands.  One of them was to an Amish farm that served meals to groups and gave tours explaining their life style.  Having grown up with Amish living near by, I was somewhat familiar with their culture but it was still an interesting outing.  After the dinner, which was a lot like my Aunt Dora's dinners (mashed potatoes and noodles and chicken, yumm) the lady of the house showed us some quilts she was working on.  My friend Pam, who loved all things authentic and antique, gushed over the lovely colors and patterns (they were beautiful quilts) and said "Oh, do you use all natural materials?"  to which the eminently practical lady replied "Oh no, I always use polyester.  It's so much more practical."  

remember..

 January 27 is the anniversary of the liberation of Aushwitz-Birkenau, and is an international holiday "Holocaust Remembrance Day" created by the United Nations to honor the millions of victims of the Holocaust and develop educational plans to prevent further genocides. I don't generally dwell on serious matters in this blog but this deserves remembrance.  I have visited Holocaust museums and one concentration camp, and it was horrific.  I am not Jewish but I do have one tenuous connection to Europe during World War II and it involves a lady who became one of my heroes.  My stepmother was born in the US of Polish parents who decided to move back to Warsaw, Poland in the early 1930s to help with a family business, so my stepmother grew up there.  She was not Jewish but, in bits and pieces, I learned about her involvement in WWII.  She recalled Jewish friends disappearing, the extreme shortages and rationing, and the fear of living in an occupied city.  She was a young woman at the time with an infant son living with her parents. Her first husband had left Poland to fly with the British Air Force.  They were reunited years later in the US.  While she was living in Warsaw, she worked for the Polish underground, carrying messages.  She said the German soldiers didn't suspect a woman with a small child.  When my daughter was in high school, my stepmom was invited to come and speak to her history class.  Since she wasn't driving at that point, I took her to Carroll High School and got to stay and hear her talk.  Imagine this frail but very sophisticated little lady standing up in a large auditorium style classroom, in front of a  combined class of junior and senior history students.  She spoke with and accent and I was concerned about how the students might react to her, but when she started talking there wasn't a sound from the kids. I think they sensed that this was someone who had lived what they had only read about.  She spoke for about a half hour and then invited questions.  One girl asked her how she felt when they were liberated.  Like the girl, I was expecting an answer about celebration and rejoicing but her answer has always stayed with me.  She said "You have to remember, we were liberated by the Russians. The Germans were at least civilized. (obviously not to the Jews, but that was her experience) The Russians were savages."  I learned later that she had been raped by a Russian soldier, had an abortion, and was helped to come back to the United States (she was a US citizen and it should have been easy, but there were lots of complications) by posing as the nurse of the doctor who had helped her.  I loved her as my stepmom and honor her as my hero.

What are you wearing?

 Today, according to one of many calendars available on line, is "Clashing Clothes Day" which is always celebrated on the 4th Thursday in January.  My west coast brother couldn't provide anything more interesting because he was busy installing a new transmitter, whatever that is.  I guess he does need to focus on work sometimes.  But about clashing clothes, I'm not sure why this is celebrated in January. If you're wearing wildly clashing clothes but have to bundle up in a coat, who will know?  Although, I must admit I do see some interesting outfits on my elevator rides.  On any given day, even in this weather, I might be riding in the elevator with a person wearing shorts and flip flops and someone else wearing plaid pajama pants with a message bearing top.  Often these people are hauling baskets of clothes to the laundry room which may explain their attire.  I get the impression that some of our younger tenants here (we do have a number of college students) wait until they are absolutely out of clothes before they realize it's time to do laundry. But back to clashing clothes, I can't think of anything that clashes more than bright red and bright green, so maybe everyone should bring out their ugly Christmas sweaters for one more wearing in January.  They certainly would go well with the snow we finally have.  And speaking of that, I had to drive to a couple of appointments today and I was really impressed with how well the main roads have been cleared off.  And speaking of that, one of my appointments today was to finalize plans for a trip, so now I am dreaming of sunny Italy in September, and I won't care at all if every tourist wears clashing clothes.

a perfect day

 This was a perfect day if you didn't need to go outside.  We did get six inches of snow, as predicted.  Lucky for me, I only had two meetings and both were by Zoom, an absolutely marvelous invention.  My west coast brother informed me earlier in the day that today is "Library Shelfie Day" and "National Irish Coffee Day."  I understand Irish coffee, yummy, but decided to double check on Shelfie Day.  It is always the fourth Wednesday in January and it's a day for book lovers to share their favorite books and library shelves in a fun way.  Once upon a time, when my husband and I were homeowners we had accumulated hundreds of books.  We had book cases in our bedroom, the children's bedrooms, the upstairs family room, the down stairs family room, the downstairs office, and black metal shelves in the basement garage for the overflow.  But now I have downsized.  While I was in the process of getting rid of books, Hyde Brothers Books on Wells Street (an amazing collection of used books) was my best friend.  I sold, the brothers bought, and I gradually got rid of many, many books.  Now I have only two book cases in my living room, one more in the dining room and a bed side table in my bedroom that holds a good supply of books.  A real comedown from our original collection.  But lucky for me I live less than a mile from our wonderful downtown library where I can check out an endless supply of books, without worrying about space to store them or needing to keep them dusted.  And, joy of joys, they are all free.  They have even, recently, done away with late fees.  So my favorite shelves are the ones at the library. As for favorite books, they are almost too numerous to count, but my all time very favorite is "A Town Like Alice" by Nevil Shute.  You can be sure, that one is still in my bookcase.