Author: Sharon

I believe you make your own reality whether good or bad. Thus, my favorite saying is, "Say what you mean and mean what you say."
Posted in Musings and Mutterings

Summer Flight

Posted on by Sharon

You know, you wait for summer to come along and you think of all the stuff you’d like to do and then you plan all the stuff you’d like to do and revel in the thought of all the stuff you’d like to do and then you start doing all the stuff you’d like to do, but all the stuff you have to do tends to interfere with all the stuff you’d like to do and even if you make time for all the stuff you’d like to do, by the time you do that stuff your summer is almost over and you still have a bunch of stuff you have to do and a bunch of stuff you’d still like to do.

 

What’s up with that?

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

I’ll have a graduated Irish fried spider with extra innings please, and hold the onions!

Posted on by Sharon

I do so love to sum up an entire weekend in one title, even if the order is a bit out of sync.

I am back from Spain and have survived. Had an awesome time, but this is not the Spain trip blog. That one requires more time and effort than I’m willing to put in right now.

I had a busy (free!) weekend. On Friday, I went to the Annapolis Irish Festival’s free evening concert. Men in kilts banging on big drums and playing the pipes excite me, so it was a perfect evening. We spread some blankets on the lawn, albeit unknowingly on an ant hill. (luckily they were the tiny kind that you don’t mind finding wandering around on your body even after you’ve gotten home, which was an hour’s drive) The evening started with Irish dancers and then we listened to a few variations of “celtic” music by The Rovers, Barleyjuice, Albannach and The Rogues. If you click on each one, you too can hear what I mean about how different they all are. (Albannach is my personal favorite)

While I was sitting on the blanket collecting ants, sipping a beer and waiting for friends to arrive, I asked Hubby if he would mind going to get some kind of a deep fried dinner for us at one of the festival vendors, preferably a crab cake. (this is MARYLAND, after all) He was gone for an hour, surely trying to find me something that didn’t have an onion in it, and when he returned he handed me a wrapped bun, which I believed had my crab cake in it. I was kind of right, although it wasn’t what I expected. As I unwrapped the paper, I saw what looked like, to me, legs! Deep fried and breaded legs akin to those on a spider…. uh…. I peeled back the bun and looked askance at my husband, who after 31 years of partnership should know that I don’t eat anything other than fruits and vegetables that look like they did when they were alive, so the deep-fried spider looking thing on my bun was not going to be something I was having for my dinner.

“You brought me a deep-fried spider?”

“It’s a soft shell crab!!”

“Since when is a soft shell crab and a crab cake the same thing? Here, you get the fried spider, I’m eating your clams.”

Luckily, my husband loves me more than what he puts in his tummy, so we traded dinners. I don’t even want to THINK about him eating all those legs…. (I’m retching a bit… hold on….)

On Saturday, I was invited by Jenny to go to an Orioles game. The company she works for had rented a suite at Camden Yards for an Orioles vs. Tigers game. We had decided that we should be ecologically responsible and ride the light rail into town. After 20 minutes and at least 20 miles of wandering around trying to find the light rail, the two-blondes-who-need-GPS-to-find-their-way-out-of-a-paper-bag finally found their way onto a train and from the train to the suite, collecting a commemorative Jim Palmer statue replica on their way. Neither of which understood the Jim Palmer statue, even when they were wending their way past the freshly unveiled statue (drapery still on the ground) and the furious clicking and flashing of photos. To them it was merely a traffic jam on their way to the ultimate reward of free food and air conditioning!

Some may not know this, but I am allergic to all things onion. Even the fetid stench of onions, which closely resembles the smell of serious body odor released from a sweat-drenched teenager who hasn’t bothered to wash in days, but has had some serious track workouts in 90+ temperatures, can make me sick and cause some breathing issues. As soon as I opened the door to the suite, the miasma of onions whacked me in the face, causing what Jenny thought was a terrified-recognition-of-someone-from-my-past kind of reaction. No.. it was just me trying to breathe. We dumped our stuff and checked the food (which was all looking quite yummy, but was rife with the enemy) and decided that for me, a beer (or three) would have to suffice as the majority of my meal. (Poor me… lol)

The game was actually very good. 13 innings later, the Orioles pulled out the win with a two run homer. Can’t beat that when you are sipping free Stella Artois and Landshark. Even having to wait for our train home wasn’t so bad because between the overly warm (and overly large) gentleman who wanted to display his distended abdomen for all the world to see and the extremely height challenged gentleman that kept giving Jenny the eye, we had things to chat about. (yes, at times I can be *that* shallow as to remark on such things, but they were right *there*!)

On Sunday, I went to a graduation party for a former chorus student who has now made her way through Northwestern University and is working in journalism. Awesome! Even sitting in the rain didn’t dampen the conversations. I did have some uber-yummy carrot cake there (’cause there aren’t any onions in dessert!!) but otherwise I had to pass on the noshing. Still, they had….you guessed it…. beer!, so I was yet again able to sustain my liquid diet. It was nice to sit with her and hear her memories from the student side of the chorus and made me realize, yet again, how much I love what I do and what I’m involved in. The others at our table were also musicians or teachers, so we had a great time throwing around names and experiences that in some ways either interacted with one another unknowingly, or had a common person involved that we found we mutually knew. Eerie, yet comforting.

So, to sum up… music, food I couldn’t eat, beer and friends. What more could a girl want for a superfantabulous weekend?

Nuthin’. :0)

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

Excitement or Anxiety? – 4

Posted on by Sharon

It’s Friday.

I’m headed for Europe on Monday.

People keep saying to me, “Are you ready for your trip?” “Aren’t you excited?”

I’m not sure how to answer that, exactly. Am I excited, or am I simply anxious?

Both produce an adrenaline reaction that I don’t find comfortable. Both make my cheeks squeeze. (too graphic?) Both make my heart race and create a disjointed lack of ability to focus. I ask you, how is that a pleasant feeling?

So… I choose to think of other things. Kinda.

Like writing a blog about feeling a certain way I don’t like to feel, right? I’m brilliant!

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

Major and Minor – 12

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Today I am majorly distracted and minorly motivated to work. To give you an idea of how my day has gone, I got work emails that I read and didn’t respond to, because I was reading them while I was taking a walk around the neighborhood.

My husband called to talk to me and I couldn’t focus my mind on his words while I was trying to randomly save my daylilies from certain strangulation by some damn flowering vine. (probably a morning glory someone stupidly planted without thought of how those suckers take over EVERYTHING)

I left the piles I pulled in the driveway.  ahem… ok.. I forgot them until I looked out later, happier now?

I came up to the loft to work and instead bought some socks and foundation garments for my trip to Spain. What I really need are some business casual outfits, but I haven’t gotten there yet.

Determined to get something done, I started working on attendance rosters so I can produce the progress reports that are due – um – now. Of course, I’m freezing for some reason, so I go hunting a jacket and while downstairs, I have my breakfast, wander out to the deck and look around. Then I pet the dog and wander back upstairs.

I checked my email, but couldn’t really be bothered to see what any of the messages said, flitted through Facebook for a second, checked my bank account, chatted with my friend about a bunch of nothing, saw that another hour and a half had passed by and realized it was LUNCH time. So, off to put together my meal of salsa, crackers and celery, accompanied by a cup of fresh coffee and a cup of lemon-lime water stuffed to the brim with ice! (wth?)

I’m in a perfectly lovely dreamy disconnected mood and happy as a clam to be distracted by anything my mind wants to pursue with only the slightest inkling that my daughter is coming to visit and if I don’t get my work done, I won’t be able to hang out with her, not to mention how appreciative my boss would be to see that I’ve finished the second campus progress reports so she doesn’t have to worry about them when she flies out of the country. Pah!! Now I ask you, who could be bothered with that stuff when you feel ethereal and dreamy and are floating along in your puffy cloud-like existence of looking at butterflies and watching the leaves on the trees flutter in the breeze while sipping alternating hot and cold beverages?

I have notifications on my phone. Sometimes they are so spot-on with current thoughts or conversations when they go off randomly. Just now I got a notification that says, “More Work?”, which came from World of Warcraft audio clips. It was quickly followed by another notification that says, “I’m not listening!”  So true… how did it know?

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

Wild Weather Moves -17

Posted on by Sharon
Mt. Airy Tornado forming

We had violent weather yesterday. Tornadoes passed us by on two sides and for that, I’m grateful. I’m hoping that there wasn’t really any damage to anyone else. (and yes, my technical side says there actually aren’t “two sides” when you basically live in a radius – chill)

Thunder in my new home is strange. I hear an occasional boom, but unlike when I lived in the ‘burbs with buildings everywhere, here in the hills it just kinda rolls along forever and never really ends. It was a little disturbing and the dog purely hates it. She was never this much of a ‘fraidy cat before. Still, I trust her ears and reactions more than my own because the time she was racing around looking for a place to hide ended up being just before the closest tornado went by. She may look like a naked mole rat now, but she’s still my best indicator when I’m hiding in the basement.

We are parents again! Well, just for the weekend. We are blessed with a visitation by our friends’ two teenaged children while she visits her ailing mother. It’s pretty amazing the difference in the energy around here when the kids come to visit. Slipping in to psuedo-mom wasn’t difficult at all, and in fact, felt really good. I’ve said something to Hubby about adopting or fostering foreign students, but he looks at me like I’ve grown a second head when I mention it, so I think he’s not really on board for that kind of thing.

I’m going to help my son pack a trailer and head off for his new life in Houston. He and his new wife are moving back to her hometown. I want him happy, but I can’t say I won’t miss him. A bunch. I’m sure weeping will ensue, but I’m hoping not too much and only the happy kind. (ok, I can dream, can’t I?) If this is the way it works, with the son going to live with the daughter’s family, then why did my daughter move to Pittsburgh? Just sayin’. (and I’m sure I’ll hear a stern and beleaguered, “mom” from her later)

Yes, the countdown to travel has begun. 17 days until I leave for Spain! EEK! and YAY!

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

Getting Wood

Posted on by Sharon

Ok.. my title tickles me. I’ll admit it. I am pervy and goofy now and then. Double entendre is a constant in my mind. Oh… the things that I think.

But what I *really* mean is that last night, after many years of my bow sitting in its box just waiting for me to have the perfect place and time to get it back out, I once again pulled its bowstring and let my arrows fly.

And amazingly, they didn’t fly all over the yard. In fact, they flew pretty straight and true for cheapo arrows being shot by someone who hasn’t pulled a bowstring in 10 years at least.

In fact, I had two teens with me who wanted to shoot as well. We were taking turns, oldest to youngest. After my first shot, they both looked at me in amazement. The next in the line up pulled the bow once, did poorly and quit. The last one pulled and did well, but said, “That’s not fair!” Pah! Youth! A person does well and it’s not “fair”…. hehehe.. I was… amused.

I have a simple recurve bow that I love. No compound anything for me. Although, a nice crossbow with a manual pull wouldn’t be bad to play with either. I have my fathers’ old longbow, but I think it’s cracked so I’m really afraid to even try to string it. I just save it because I like the way it looks.

I set up two bag targets on either side of the volleyball/badminton net we have in the backyard and took shots at them. I was trying to adjust my aim, because for some reason, I didn’t hit the 3 foot by 3 foot target so much as I could hit right above it… in the 4 inch wooden post it was leaning against. I was aiming at the right spot, but a bit too high! (or not accounting for the arc properly) I hit the post (on both sides of the net a total of 8 times, with two arrows splintering the wood on the edges of the posts and one embedding itself squarely in the center of the post. I find this truly amazing, since my arrows are the least expensive practice arrows and not one of them has a sharp tip. Man, that felt good to pull that bowstring again.

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

Traumatized

Posted on by Sharon

First …

This is Piper, aka, Pip, Pippy, Pipsqueak, Squeaky, Nana, Nanners and sometimes Goofy dog.

Piper is a Rottie-Shepherd mix, with the emphasis on MIX. She’s got black spots on her tongue so there’s probably some Chow in there. She’s a good girl, loves her family is crazy about Elvis and her boyfriend too…OOoops… my bad.. lapsed into lyrics again.. (bonus if you can figure out the song and artist)

She really is a good girl. From the moment I put her down on the floor as a teeny tiny puppy, and she promptly pooped, I knew she was our dog. I told her right then that there were no free rides and that she had a job to do. Protect the family. She certainly took that to heart, and she’s done a great job.

Most people look at her and think she is a “he”, with her bruiser kind of look, and decide that maybe they don’t want to mess with her. They are right to do so, but to her family, she’s a sweetheart.

Enter the groomer….

Pip never has liked the heat, so I figured this year we’d give her some respite from her thick coat of hair and get her groomed. All I have to say is we couldn’t finish and thank goodness for a muzzle and two other people to hold on to her.

She was not happy. She is not happy.  You know how it is when you get a new haircut that you aren’t sure you like very much and you catch sight of yourself as you walk by the mirror and think, “Who is that?”  That’s what Piper is doing.

The result…

You’d think that the trauma would have been for the dog, but it seems more of an issue for my husband and kids!! One child sent me a text bemoaning the fact that her “dog” was now nothing more than a giant rat, and another said, “What the hell did you do to that poor animal?”. Still another couldn’t get past “poor thing.. poor Pip… poor dog”, and my husband came up the steps to my office in the loft with, “Are you proud of yourself? What is that??” (I’ve yet to hear from the last child, but she’s a bit busy signing for a new house today) Even friends asked me, “Um, why is your dog naked?”

At least she’s worn out for the day…

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

Spring has Sprung…and so have the weeds!

Posted on by Sharon

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day here and it put me in such a springy bouncy mood…. and now it’s raining. I know we need the rains – especially since it’s my first time ever on a well – so I’m thankful for it, but the cloudless blue skies and the clarity of color yesterday was just awesome.

My daughter and psuedo-son came to visit. They brought us a fire pit as a housewarming gift, which I thought was a pretty clever idea. We sat out under the stars and burned stuff. It was great. There are tons of branches and sticks on our property, since no one was really taking care of it before we moved in. Thus, we have plenty of fuel for the fire and sticks for marshmallow roasting. And hey, what’s a camp without a campfire, right! Good job, TJ!

As I typically do after concert season, it’s time to update you as to what’s been floating through the empty spaces where my mind should be….

1. Concerts and Work

  •   All went well with all performances! The kids did a fantastic job with Carmina Burana at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. They performed with the Concert Artists of Baltimore and a host of  musicians. The age range was from 8-12, so for many, this was the first taste of being on “the big stage”. It was great to feel their energy and excitement. Makes me feel really good about what I do. On the same day, an older group (13-18) were singing with Baltimore Choral Arts Society in their production of “Elijah”. That group got rave reviews from the conductors and a standing ovation. Again – Happy Me! The Spring semester concerts (3 of them over two weekends) all went well, even though there was some seating snafus. I truly appreciate how flexible my boss is!
  •  France – During all of this, we decided that we had enough singers to go ahead and finalize our 2013 tour to France, including Paris, Caen, Tours, Mt. St. Michel and the beaches at Normandy. If all goes as planned, the kids will be singing at the American Memorial on the 4th of July at Normandy. Most of the parents I’ve talked to are very touched and excited by this.
  • Spain – I leave for Spain in less than a month to check out venues and touring options in Madrid, Seville, Granada and Malaga. I didn’t realize how big/important/amazing the Alhambra was to most, but since I’ve been poking around on the web, I’ve now realized what an amazing opportunity this all is! ( Quit shaking your head… I’m slow sometimes… we all know it!)

House and Home life

  • WEEDS! WEEDS! WEEDS!  Blech… not knowing what was planted here since I’d never seen it in a growing season, I had to wait a bit for things to really establish themselves before I pulled them out of the ground. Between that and being gone every night of the week and two full weekends, my yard is now ABUNDANT with weeds. Thankfully, I’m also seeing that much of the plantings done here are very hardy and not very labor intensive, once I get the overgrowth of wild strawberry and such under control. I’m looking forward to planting some Pampas grasses and Liriope. And daisies… I gotta have some daisies!
  • Kids have been visiting – which makes me happy. Furniture is in the house now and painting choices are coming together nicely. Photos eventually. :0)
  • Got some interesting news in the health realm. Could be nothing…we are checking it out now. The more exciting news is that I lost 12 lbs, which has me feeling much better in my own skin. And, I started walking in the mornings again. It’s great to look at what others are doing in their yard and seeing all the BUNNIES in our neighborhood. Another plus to living out here. I have BUNNIES around again.
  • Bessie – my beloved and dearly departed cat – planned a little gift for me before she passed. I had some rugs in my room that had been in the basement. The first day it was warm enough to open the windows, it was also humid. I opened my windows and left the room to go to the loft to work, but when I came down the steps – oh my goodness! She’d left me an aromatic gift in my carpet. EW! And she wasn’t there for me to fuss at or to give me that huge look and invite me to pet her fuzzy softness and a conciliatory gesture. My friend said it was a “sneak attack” and complimented Bess with a “Well played, Bessie, well played”. It did remind me of why I don’t want to seek out a cat and will wait until one needs me.

So – that’s the basics. I’m planning on blogging more so you don’t have to read a novella just to keep up with the boring life I lead! Now… back to work… or a nap. Whichever I can rouse myself to first.

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

Tables, Couches and Chairs… oh my

Posted on by Sharon

Get ready for it…. a blog about furniture.

Yep. I know you are barely able to contain your joy and are gushing with excitement to find out what *I* might have to say about furniture.

I promise I’ll make it short. Promise.

After waiting for 7 years to finally purchase some living room furniture because I couldn’t condone buying something without knowing what my next home would be like, I finally got a living room set. This excites me. And, as an added bonus, I got a dining room table. Whoo hoo! Can you feel the tension in the room rising to a fevered pitch?? WAIT!!? Living room furniture AND a kitchen table?? Sharon, did you lose your MIND??!!

(well, yes, but that was years ago)

My first official dinner on my table was with a full house. Some friends came for Camp Nini happy hour and we decided to grill up some chops and steam some beans. Fine fare for my new boards, I must say. And even though one of the chairs they were delivering today was smashed in two and I’m waiting for a replacement, nothing could dampen the spirits and laughter at the table tonight. ‘Twas all good.

Posted in Musings and Mutterings

On Groundhogs and Libraries

Posted on by Sharon

When I moved, I understood that I’d be living in a way I’d never lived before. Growing up, I lived with my parents in a post-war, pre-made, modular neighborhood. Little boxes (on a hillside, little boxes full of ticky-tacky…) literally on a hillside – just as the song suggests – and since they were built in the early 60’s, they were definitely filled with ticky-tacky. They were close together, but nothing like today’s house farms where you can reach out and shave your neighbors face, if you really wanted to.

Then I moved to an older neighborhood and while most houses were spaced nicely away from each other, my house was a new addition that they sandwiched between two existing homes, which meant that one of my neighbors and I enjoyed a cozy relationship just over the fence from one another.

Then I bought what we are lovingly referring to as Camp Nini. I can barely see one of my neighbors, and I’d be hard pressed to know there was anyone on the other side of me, and I’m in a cluster of homes. I’m loving it!

Now today, the issue of proximity was brought up over coffee with one of my neighbors. They casually mentioned that we have a groundhog living under our playhouse in the backyard. Having had a groundhog live peacefully in my backyard at the other house, I didn’t see anything wrong. The neighbor said, “We have to get a gun. Do you think we are 150 feet from another house?”

I wasn’t sure why we had to get a gun… until they said, “Killing groundhogs is fun!”  And then they started talking about mice and how they’d squished one of those little guys. EEK! I could feel the “city girl” in my cringe. But the reality of it is, I’m not in the city anymore, and critters can, and do, damage property and crops around here. I think that if I had my garden up and going this year and I’d found all my juicy tomatoes had been eaten by a critter, I might have another reaction other than squeamishness. After considering the time and effort and labor involved in preparing and tending a garden, I might be saying, “Honey!! Where is my bow?”

(I can shoot, and very well, btw, but I do prefer my re-curve bow which I have had since long before Hunger Games, thanksverymuch!)

After a morning of contemplating the elimination of vermin from the yard, I felt the best thing to do would be to visit the local library and get my brand-new, shiny and all-powerful LIBRARY CARD. Those things are awesome…. just sayin’.  The library in my area is fairly new and by-gosh and golly, it has some new-fangled ideas that my old library (voted one of the best systems in the COUNTRY) didn’t have. 24/7 mailboxes to pick up ordered materials at your convenience, a CD dispenser similar to a vending machine, computers, self-serve check-out tables, three nice meeting rooms, skylights and a drive-through! You read that correctly. A. drive. through. Neato!

Feeling excited about wandering the stacks with the possibility of finding the perfect cookbook for groundhog goulash, I presented myself to the desk and got my new library card. The librarian whisked me over to the cooking section and then left with a breezy offer of help, should I need it. At this point, a few things registered:

  1. There might have been 5 people there, including the staff.
  2. The shelves weren’t higher than my chest and I could look out over the library area easily.
  3. There didn’t seem to be very many books!

Even though there was a good selection and choice of books, there just weren’t many of them. Or at least, not as many as I’ve been used to seeing. Every section was contained in one large room, with adult media on one side and children’s media on the other. That’s when it occurred to me that this was a library the way it should be used and in good standing for the future. It was lean and ready for its role in the future. With the E-book database growing daily and the DVD’s available, I was pretty impressed.

I ended up leaving with a pretty good book called, “Groundhog is Good Eatin'”.