Spring Greening

I walked outside today and looked off toward the horizon and I could have sworn I had on a veil or maybe two. The haze was so thick from tree pollen that it looked as if I had spread Vaseline across my eyeballs. The Vaseline would have felt better than the cruel pollen that felt like tiny needles to the eyes.

We have not had rain in days and the pine trees sex organs are in full overdrive, like a sixteen year old boy with a box of playboys. You can see the yellow pollen practically squirting from the male cones.

The pollen is even getting to Shay who woke Russ up four times in the night. I bought her Claritin today which my vet had told me to give her last year and I forgot until now. I hope that we can get her system calmed down from these allergies.

When I went to my car I did not recognize it as it was a neon green. Driving to lunch was like following the yellow brick road, but the road turned into a cloud. I made sure I had my car on recirculating mode so new fresh air was coming inside, since this air is anything but fresh.

We just got a tiny amount of rain. Not enough to pull all that pollen out of the trees. I hope we get a good hard soaking. I know the pine trees are just the start of the “green season.”

I now understand why we have “spring cleaning,” to clean up all the mess that spring brings.

Sunday Thoughts

Despite all that is going on in this country I always have hope. I can’t do the opposite. I have lived long enough to know that whatever is happening today is not necessarily what will happen tomorrow. Humans tend to think when things are good they will continue to be good and when things are bad they will continue to be bad. History shows us that neither good times nor bad times continue unchecked.

I had a great example of that today in Church. For our affirmation of faith we read from the Confession of 1967. Times in America we’re not so great in 1967. We were in a senseless war in Vietnam, civil rights were challenging and women were tired of being second class citizens.

The Presbyterian church gathered to write the confession of 1967 in response to our times, but it feels very familiar to our current times. The joy I got from reading this was not that times are bad now, but that they were bad then and then things improved. The fact that they don’t stay good or bad is nothing new.

My friend Warren shared a prayer he wrote for his church in Maine. As a deacon he was supposed to read it there today, but his church was canceled due to spring snow. I thought it was too good for someone not to hear. My prayer is that you have hope (and take action). Hope alone is not enough.

Oh God-

For always hearing our prayers…those spoken and unspoken;

For giving us reasons to hope when we’re feeling hopeless and in despair;

For comforting when we’re hurting or in mourning;

For helping us find the strength and courage when we’re facing hardships and challenges that threaten to break us;

For those family members, friends and even pets who accompany us on life’s journey, lovingly sharing our ups and downs;

For community, like this one, that sustains and bolsters us;

For those among us who advocate for justice, peace and those most in need;

For the little joys and blessings that bring smiles and laughter: a favorite song, a spring flower, a stranger’s smile;

For all of these and most of all for the life and love of your beloved son, Jesus Christ, now wandering in the wilderness, we give you our heartfelt thanks.

Save Democracy, Teach Mah Jongg, Not at The Same Time

Save Democracy, Teach Mah Jongg, Not at The Same Time

My day was a tale of two stories.  It started with a meeting at my Friend Jan’s neighborhood clubhouse.  You know Jan, the one who had cancer last year.  Now she is having a knee replaced in two weeks.  Between beating cancer and getting a new knee she is most concerned with saving democracy.  

Thankfully Jan is good at gathering troops and setting them on a mission.  So I joined her neighborhood friends and we discussed what we were most worried about and how we want to move forward to fight against the things we are worried about.  The list of what we are collectively worried about totaled about 999 things so there is little time to waste to speak up.  It is time for us to overwhelm those who should be leading that we don’t go along with the way they are not leading or destroying our country.  It felt good to talk about these things with like minded women and to actually do something.  

The second half of my day was a mini mah Jongg beginner boot camp for a realtor having a  customer appreciation event.  I started the class with the caveat that they can’t learn to play mah Jongg in three hours, but they did a pretty good job at it.

The thing that is good about teaching mah Jongg is I am so fully in it when I am doing it I can’t think about democracy being ripped out from underneath us.  So I am glad to know that Jan is working on that.  

I would love to hear from anyone who has good ideas of actions we can take to make our views known.  I joined indivisible today and plan on going to a rally and have joined economic blackouts, but I like big impact ideas.  Please share ideas you have that are non-violent.  

Then when I’m not teaching mah Jongg I can Work on them.

The Perfect Mah Jongg Table

One of my students from the Bahamas went home from class and asked her husband for the perfect Mah Jongg table. She wanted something where the drinks would not be near the game and it should be beautiful enough to be in her house.

She sent me her husband’s instagram with the most beautiful Maple table. It’s a hit. Now he’s making them to order. They come in different kinds of wood, white oak, walnut and cherry. Oh they are magnificent.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHuRTdut5me/?igsh=c2tveGJnbGZjY2Iy

They live in Boston so if you are local to them it might be easy to order one from him. I asked if it came disassembled for shipping and could be screwed together. Jenny was going to ask her husband.

I love the clever leg design with two built in shelves to place your drink and snacks. The best part is it looks lovely. Everyone ask me if I have one of those automatic mah Jongg tables. I say, “absolutely not, they are too ugly to have in my house.”

I have a game table I designed years ago that was made to order for me from the wright table company in North Carolina. Sadly they went out of business. They made beautiful wood furniture to order so I got a square table a little larger than a card table with no apron so everyone could cross their legs and a little taller than a card table. I wish I had added pullout drink drawers.

I think the one Jenny’s husband designed is brilliant. I hope it brings her lots of good luck.

The New Card is Out

It’s not a rumor, the new Mah Jongg cards have been delivered in NY. The rest of us are at the mercy of our post offices. I hope that means mine will come soon, but last year it was 10 days after April 1.

No worries. I have seen the card, played it on Real Mah Jongg and started my analysis. You will get my opinion at new card classes, but I am certain I will have a lot to say about it.

The one thing I will preview for you is there is a big mistake that is being blamed on the printer. It will not be hard to understand and wrap your head around what the correct hand should be and I will be showing you the correction.

Real Mah Jongg has already added 2025 to the card choices you can play on the app. I have played ten games and won six so I consider that a good showing with a card I don’t know.

There are familiar hands and some really new ones. That’s what makes Mah Jongg so fun. So Happy New year all you Maj players. I hope your cards arrive soon. Now back to analysis for me..

Why we Should Trust Jeffery Goldberg

Jeffery Goldberg is the kind of journalist we should trust. He did not publish any information he was given when he was added to the Signal group with the government leaders who were breaking the law in having these conversations on an unapproved app. Goldberg did not put any of our Armed services personnel in danger by revealing what he was privy to.

Only after the mission was complete did he let it be known that Signalgate took place, but he still did not publish the details. Only after he was called a liar and the government official lied before congress did he publish the details.

Magazines of the caliber such as Atlantic have fact checkers. Even the editor gets fact checked. Publishing lies is libel and libel laws are not something magazines what to tangle with as the consequences are harsh and costly.

There are also laws for lying before Congress and it certainly appears that Goldberg has the evidence. Before the government goes after a journalist they should make sure they have the law on their side.

We need journalist to help hold government accountable. We have laws that should keep journalists honest. We also should demand that our government officials are also honest. Too many Americans have given up on the idea that we should expect honesty because they think it has been working in their favor, but that can change.

The government, not held to accountability, can decide that they want to come after you, or something you hold dear. By then it’s too late. They have usurped all the power and left you powerless.

Thank you to Jeffery Goldberg for being honest and having more integrity than all the liars on that group chat. In order for the people to retain any power we need to know what is going on and we learn that from journalists.

The Not So Good Ole Days, Today

A catalog that shall remain nameless arrived at our house today. As I was waiting for water to boil I flipped it open and was transported back to 1978 and not in a good way. Literally everything on the page was a exactly as I might have found it in this very same catalog 50 years ago.

Now this catalogue does pride itself on offering products which were discontinued years ago. It does make me wonder where it gets them. Lemon up shampoo was popular in 1972. So did this company buy up all the remaining stock and just keep selling it until it runs out, or are they having it made privately. If it is the later I am not sure I would trust the knock off.

Now a good shampoo is timeless. That is not the time warp I am concerned about. No, it’s the clothes. Everything in this book looks like it is the latest offering in the Family Store in Utah where Warren Jeff’s offspring get their clothes.

The denim dresses are exactly as they were in the late seventies except maybe longer. The top one being described at “flirty” must be the equivalent of an AMC Pacer being described as sexy. The term sack like comes to mind. Even Roseanne Barr at her ugliest wouldn’t wear these. I love that descriptions describe them as “imported.”

I wonder if they just keep reprinting the same catalog and upping the prices. The photography and the models all look original.

I am not mentioning the name because I see no reason to hurt their business, but I would love to know if they are wearing all these clothes or just laughing at the people who are?

Why You Should Watch Women’s Basketball

If you are not watching the women’s Basketball you should be. It is every bit as exciting as the men’s. Tonight I was watching the Maryland Alabama women’s game. Maryland led by ten. Then Alabama led by seventeen. Then in the fourth quarter Maryland came back and tied up the game sending it into overtime. Maryland has a player who shoots free throws at 85% and she kept getting fouled. You know she drops everyone of those baskets. Alabama’s second and third best players foul out and are not in overtime.

Maryland pulls ahead in the OT, Alabama gets within 2, shoots three shots and misses them all with 8.4 seconds to play. Maryland has The ball, they get fouled and a 90% free throw shooter misses the first shot and makes the second. Maryland is up by three.

Alabama has one last shot, their best player Sarah Ashlee Barker gets fouled at the buzzer and gets three free throws. She makes them all tying the game and it goes into second over time! She has already made 39 points as a career high.

Maryland comes out in the second OT and scores five off the top. Alabama scores 2, Maryland answers with 2. Back to a five point game. Alabama gets fouled, makes two free throws. Three point game and Maryland gets a half court three point shot. Alabama gets a 2. Four point game, Maryland up with one minute left. Alabama makes a 2 point shot. Maryland up by 2. Makes another 2 pointer, up four Maryland. Alabama’s Barker makes a basket for 2 points, giving her 43 points for the game. Alabama is down by 2 and there are 28 seconds left in second over time.

Alabama fouls Maryland’s worst free throw shooter on the inbound. She makes one of the two free throws, three point game. Barker makes a 2 point shot, now 45 points for game. They are down by one. They foul Maryland and they make both free throws. Maryland up by 3. Alabama Shoots a three and misses. 1.8 seconds left and the ball tipped out by Maryland. Alabama keeps the ball.

The inbound ball gets deflected by Maryland and they win the game! 108-111 the second highest scoring game in women’s NCAA playoff history. The most exciting game this year.

Shay does not like all the screaming that happens while basketball is on. So she goes up to the guest room to find solace with Russ who is reading. Trying to hide from the basketball she digs up the covers and makes herself a nest. Of course that is all fine with Russ. But she still does not like the screaming.

New Card Count Down

My friends call it Mah Jongg Christmas. I know my Jewish friends bristle at that, but we mean it as it is the highest compliment. The day the new card arrives at our homes is the best day of the year.

I hope if you are a Mah Jongg player you have already ordered your new card. If not, get right on the National Mah Jongg leagues website and order a card. Please spring for the extra dollar and order the large print card. www.nationalmahjonggleague.org

I will be teaching 15 New Card classes across North Carolina. Each class is a lecture class with power point slides. I don’t get to see the new card before anyone else does. So I await the new card just like you.

When the card arrives I have to analyze it, run the data, play the card a few hundred hands, memorize it and then write the power point presentation. Last year it was 81 slides long. I have no idea how long this power point will be until I see the card. I can promise it will be comprehensive.

If you want to get a leg up when the new card comes out come join me at one of my classes. Visit my website www.learnmahjongg.com to find my classes. I promise it will informative and entertaining.

Learning to Walk Home Again

Shay is turning fourteen in less than two months. We still call her our puppy but there are definitely signs of her aging. One thing developed is her dislike of taking a walk. She will excitedly stand at the front door and have her leash attached. She will prance down our walkway with Russ and go either left or right at the road, walk to the edge of our property and sit down refusing to go any further.

With only an acre just walking at home is not enough exercise for anyone. Our vet suggested we drive to a location away from home and let her walk home. This means I drive and Russ and Shay walk. What a success this has been. She knows every street in the bowl of spaghetti streets in our neighborhood and can always chose a path home with no complaint.

Today was a beautiful day for a walk. I dropped them a little further from home than usual. We passed plenty of other dogs on walks on the way out. It didn’t take long for Russ to come trotting down the walkway with Shay and poop bag in hand.

I asked if it was eventful. Russ said the only thing that happened is some guy on an electric balance skateboard contraption with a lab and poodle let his dogs poop all along people’s yards, but he couldn’t be bothered to get off the skateboard to pick up their poop. Eventually his dogs caught up to Shay and she ignored them completely as they sniffed all around her.

Rude in every way. Please pick up after your dogs!

New Feature on Real Mah Jongg

Night before last I was playing Mah Jongg online as I do before I go to bed every night. As I was logging in I noticed a new feature on the login page, “Hand suggestions.” I thought, this must be really new because it wasn’t here yesterday. So I clicked on it to see what it would show me.

When my hand was dealt and I pressed the light bulb it highlighted a group of tile with words that said which neighborhood and number hand it was suggesting. I pressed the light bulb bulb a second time and it gave me another suggestion. I did not necessarily agree with both suggestions, so I went with my own pick and I won.

Then yesterday I got an email from the developer of Real Mah Jongg, which I assume was sent to all the subscribers announcing the new feature.

I am not a fan of playing games where the game gives you hints. Usually new players use them as a crutch and if you are just getting hints you are not really playing the game yourself, you are just watching the computer play the game for you.

You learn so much more from trying something yourself and if you fail you learn something. We learn so much more from trial and error than from always getting the answers given to us.

So tonight I got a second email from Ronnie, saying how much people like the feature. It’s been two days, and only one since he alerted people to it. So I thought I should Give it another test. It missed suggestions I would have given on the first pass and again on the second, but by the third it caught up to ones I had thought of. It kept giving me the same suggestion even when a better hand had come to fruition.

I went with my gut and I came within one tile of winning, and no other player had my tiles so I still had a chance.

I do not write code and have no idea if this one is written to learn as people play more, but right now I have not seen evidence that it is going to be correct enough. I believe that Ral Mah Jongg has the best written code to play the game, but my jury is out on if the hints are the best. In my limited play looking at the hints they have not been my choices.

I understand that lots of people like hints to help them figure out complicated games, but I beg my students to use this feature VERY sparingly. It will not make you a better mah Jongg player and will most certainly make you more anxious playing in person where you get not hints. I see hints as a dangerous crutch that might cripple you. Learn to think so you can win.

Hanging Out at Home for Entertaining

Today is my last day of classes at Home for Entertaining in Cary. They are the cutest family owned business that is half home goods/gift store and half entertaining and class space. I have been teaching classes here regularly since last June.

Sister-in-laws Jackie and Meghan Serany run the retail and experiences part of the business. Jackie’s Mom has a design firm upstairs and her Dad Dan is the director of operations and makes the best Lattes.

This week I have had two beginner classes. One I the morning and the other in the evening. The middle of the day I have two choices for my six hour break. Drive home and drive back of hang at the store. Driving home at noon is not an issue, but driving back at rush hour is a pain. So today I stayed at the store.

Russ came to Cary and we had lunch with one of his team members Zack and met his fiancée. That used up a couple of hours. Then Russ brought me back to Home for Entertaining and met the family. They could not be a more hospitable family. He came in my Mah Jongg Sunroom and we did a little website update, but then he had to go back to work. So I have hung in the dining room doing work and needlepointing.

I am very appreciative of all Meghan and Jackie do to host Mah Jongg Classes here. The snacks and drinks they provide for the class members make mah Jongg class less hangrey.

Russ looked at their website and definitely wants to take the dim sum cooking class. I’m with him on that. If you are ever looking for a fun activity take a look at the events and classes on their website. I know you will have a blast. Www.homeforentertaining.com

I’ll be back here in May for beginner and beyond beginner class and beginner again in July. I can’t wait.

Don’t Lie

Most people are terrible liars. Thank goodness. This means that you can almost always tell when they are lying. Given how bad people are at lying you would think they would learn to just not do it. The problem comes when they don’t have a plan for their lie. They don’t practice their lie. Or they have no idea how many systems there are in place to fact check their lie.

Now this is not a political post, so before you get riled up I might be writing about a well known liar, I am not. This is a tale about a grown ass woman. She signed up for something. Didn’t show up. When called to check to see if she was coming she lied and said she had called earlier and canceled.

The person she was talking to asked who she spoke with? She said a man. Only one man worked there. They checked with him. No. They checked the phone logs. (These things are computerized.) no calls from her.

She then said she emailed….wait, so you didn’t call. They checked the emails. No. They asked for her copy of the email. Deleted. Interesting…

When called back with the intention of giving her the benefit of the doubt, she got exasperated as she had run out of lies and she hung up on them.

She started with a lie. Was caught in the lie. She held on to the original lie and doubled down. When proven wrong on every count she just wasn’t smart enough to continue.

How sad. When she was called the first time about showing up she should have just said, “I made a mistake. Or I forgot.” Own your mistakes. Lying to get out of them is so much worse. It never gets you where you think it is going to.

The Octopus of Charging Cords

Every night when I get in bed I have the nightly usb plugging event. I have a watch that gets charged on a cord that just magnetically sticks to the back. I have my iPad and my phone and then any number of auxiliary items that all require USBs. My light up mirror, my flossing machine, etc, etc.

It is like an octopus of white cords and I don’t have one for every item. So then I have to decide who gets juice and for how long. Of course my phone takes priority, but I really hate when my Apple Pencil runs out and the only way to charge that is to have it connected to my iPad and have my iPad charging.

Lately my watch has been running out of power part of the way through the day if I have been listening to a book on audible and have gps driving directions on at the same time. I hate when I don’t have power to my watch, even though I have all the same capabilities and more in my pocket with my phone.

I can remember a time in my life, like maybe all of junior high school, when I didn’t even wear a watch. I was always in a room with a clock, why would I need a watch? Now I can’t stand to not have a watch. I am sure I don’t need one because whenever I look at my watch I am just confirming what time my internal clock has already told me it is. I am hardly ever off by more than five minutes.

But back to the charging situation. I could get more usb cords and have one for every item,but as it is now I have two different plugs that have two cords each, plugged into the same extension cord tucked into the wooden side rail of my bed. I fear catching myself on fire if I were to add more cords. So I guess I will just have to keep playing the merry-go-round of plugging in different items at different times. It would make too much sense just to move plugging something’s in at a different place in my house, but all these things I use in bedroom. I am just going to have to wait for the charge through the air technology or the no need for charging at all devices to come along. As long as I don’t have a bed fire before that.

Well Trained

There is no better sound to a wife than that of hearing your husband getting the vacuum out of the closet and running it without first, telling you he is doing it or reporting afterward that he did it. I am not asking why or mentioning anything about this behavior, but I will do something nice for him in return.

This was being done while he did the dishes. Please no one try and steal my husband. It took years to get him like this and I am certain I will not live long enough to ever find and train another man to this degree.

My New Website is Live

http://www.learnmahjongg.com

Russ has been after me to get a new website for my mah Jongg teaching. I think we was tired of me repeating the same information over and over. So he made me a site. I had to write the copy and others contributed photos. I appreciate High Hampton, Lyford cay and Emily Poole for giving me photos. Getting an action shot of me teaching usually involves me with my mouth open making a face that would scare off most potential new students. If you know me you are used to those faces.

From the photos I was given it is apparent I make lots of faces that no model would ever do. But the website is not about the photos. It is a listing of all my “public” classes. Public being relative. I do not list classes held at someone’s private home as those tend to be filled by the hostess. But classes at clubs or resorts or businesses often allow all kinds of people to join. Some private clubs say only members can join, unless they don’t fill their classes and then they take non-members.

For me, as the non-tech member of our family, making sure everything on the website is right and the way I would want it is hard. So give me a little grace as I work with it and update it.

My friend Suzanne suggested I have a definitions page to explain the Dana-isms I use in class. She gave me one to start. I will be keeping track of them in classes this week and get a list going before I ask Russ to add another page.

I guess I could learn how to manage my own website, but what fun would that be. I have such a cute and reliable IT department.

There is going to be a “testimonials “ page where real life students can talk shit about me. If you want me to include a quote from you go on and contact me and tell me what you really think. I will have to include your first name and last initial. No anonymous bashing. I am not culling my email and texts from past students who have said nice things to me. I really appreciate when you send me notes, but I won’t use your words without your permission.

Feel free to share this website with anyone who is wanting to Learn Mah Jongg. That’s why I called it that!

http://www.learnmahjongg.com

Not Going Back

I grew up in the sixties and came of age in the seventies. By the time I was aware of what grown up lives could be like women were demanding equality. Bobby Riggs, the world famous male chauvinist pig, and 55 year old tennis champ challenged Tennis great, 29 year old Billie Jean King to a match claiming that he could beat her, just because he was a man. This flexing of his wee little penis did not go well for him. King beat him in straight set claiming the title of the “battle of the sexes.” Billie Jean gave young women everywhere the courage to stand up for ourselves.

A mere few months after that “battle of the sexes” whomping Bobby Riggs took I faced my own show down. As sixth grader I, along with every other sixth grader from my school, went to the Walter Schalk dance classes held in the gym at our junior high school.

Schalk had been holding dance lessons for tweens and teens in our town and the one next door for years. To encourage boys to come to dance classes Schalk would recruit sports coaches to require his players to take dance so they would be more coordinated. Schalk sweetened the deal by bribing kids once at class.

The bribes were in the form of tickets that the dance leaders would give out. At the end of class they would draw tickets and the winners would each get a dollar. There were about 200 kids in my class and they would draw three or four numbers. So the probability of winning a dollar was small to begin with.

There was one catch to getting a ticket. All girls in the class had to wear white gloves. The dance leaders would inspect our gloves to ensure they were spanking clean white. If your gloves were dirty you did not get a ticket.

Boys had a requirement for tickets also. Their shoes had to be shined. This was 1973, time of wallabies made of suede. Wallabies could not be shined so boys who wore those got a ticket out of default.

Often the dance leaders would forget to give us our tickets until we had already danced one or two dances. One of those nights as the ticket givers were circling the room checking gloves and the four pairs of boys shoes that could be shined I was called out for dirty gloves. Not getting a ticket was bad enough, but you were also ridiculed publicly for dirty gloves.

Channeling my inner Billie Jean King I stood up and claimed this was unfair. “My gloves were clean when I walked in. You did not check our gloves then. I just danced two dances with two boys with sweaty, dirty hands. They is why my gloves are dirty now. I should not be penalized for their dirty hands.”

Then I doubled down on the hypocrisy. “Also, no boys are ever denied tickets because they don’t even wear shoes that can be shined. This whole thing is chauvinistic.”

Walter Shaulk himself took great umbrage with my out burst, but I stood my ground. He denied my ticket that night and demand I right an apology 100 times. I did. I wrote 100 times, “I am sorry Walter Shaulk is a male chauvinist pig.”

I came into class the next week and as the gloves were being inspected I marched my paper up to Mr. Shaulk and handed it to him. “The apology you asked for.” He never even read the words, not seeing exactly how I wrote it. But I had stood my ground and when classes began I would call out, “Please look at gloves before we dance.” Which they always did fearing I might make another scene. No longer were girls denied tickets for boys’ dirty hands.

I think of this story now as women’s rights are being challenged. Women have had to fight for those rights. No one just gave them to us. We can not go back to a time where men, by the mere fact that they were born with a penis, can tell women what to do.

Equal rights mean you get to start on a level playing field. If you want to get something you work for it and may the best person win. Not like Walter Schalk dancing school, boys get tickets for showing up, girls had to wash their gloves and be clean.

Walter Schalk used to defend the ticket system by saying he would never have enough boys in dancing school to dance with all the girls if he didn’t make it easy for them to win money. What a fool. Dance class was the closet boys ever got to girls breasts in sixth grade. They would have paid him the dollar.

Happy Birthday Ellis!

25 years ago, when Ellis was still a baby I first met her when she and Carter were baptized on the same day at church. It was a rare occasion when two babies from different families get baptized on the same day. No one thought to tell either family. There was a little skirmish in the pews as both families tried to claim the reserved pews. Thankfully that was the last skirmish to be had between our families and we quickly became family to each other.

Today Ellis turns 26 and I consider her my bonus daughter and Carter’s sister E. Ellis has always been a favorite, but I think she has grown into one of the nicest adults I know.

Ellis, I hope your birthday is being highly celebrated in NYC. You know you always have a place here as well love you like the family you are.

How Things Have Changed

When I was a kid there were two things that rarely happened and when they did we were very excited. The first was going out to dinner. Going out to dinner was something that might have happened once a year.

We didn’t have a lot of places to go out to eat and children were rarely included in dinners out. Our “out to dinner” was a Swanson’s frozen dinner at home with a babysitter.

The second thing that rarely happened in my childhood was the delivery of a package. We didn’t “order” things. I can remember going to friend’s houses and spending hours looking at the giant Sears catalog. We never had one of those, or a Penny’s or any other catalogs.

The only exception was the FAO Schwartz catalog that came in October. We would pour through it circling both the live pony and the stuffed pony you peddled from the cart it pulled. They were roughly the same price so we thought if we circled both we might get one. We got none.

At Christmas sometimes a package would come from one of the vendors who sold things to my father. The printing company he used for Avon would send the largest tower the Harry and David Company sold. No wonder since Avon was the largest printing client in the country. By the time my father got home all the chocolates had been eaten out of the gift, but the pears were fully intact.

A package that arrived at our house was fair game for any child to open. There was no regard for an addressee. The ups man had barley turned his truck around in the driveway before we had ripped open any box and examined the contents in case there was a pony in there.

Given this history I find it amazing that now packages arrive at our house and sit unopened on the hall chest for days. Once in a while Russ will say, “what’s in that box.” I will shrug and say, “dunno.”

We order so frequently that we forget what we order and it rarely is something we need in an emergency. The box sitting in the front hall now has been there at least three days. I think it is vitamins, but I still have others so I have have been in no hurry to open it. My childhood self would have lost my mind at the thought of a delivered box going longer than ten minutes unopened.

My childhood self would also be shocked about how often we eat out. It is just not as exciting as it was when it only happened once a year. I guess if the only things that came in childhood packages were vitamins we might have given up on opening those too.

The Softness of Spring

When Carter was in school spring Break was my favorite vacation. Being a set time of year with a defined start and stop made it a great time to go on vacation. Summer was harder, there was camp and other things going on so summer vacation was not as well defined.

I planned great spring breaks, going to new and different places with Carter. Then she went to college and my spring breaks ended. Now she is a grown up and the memories of spring breaks are so so far back.

I miss that defined vacation. Russ and I tend to just keep working and not plan vacations the way we did when the school calendar dictated them.

It never failed that when we did go on spring break we would miss the most beautiful weather in Durham. We would curse that the forsythia would come and go the ten days we were away. Or that it would be 45 degrees the day we left and 70 the days after, but as soon as we got home it would go back to 45.

With spring break at home now I am enjoying the blooming of the forsythia and the first 80 degree day of spring. It is beautiful all week. The air is soft and the brightness of the new growth green is everywhere.

I may have loved spring breaks away, but it is hard to beat spring here in Durham. It will be short lived. The fleeting nature of spring in the south makes each perfect day more precious. I’m so glad to have it today. My soul needs a soft warm green day full of hope.

Daylight Saving Time Strikes

Today I had an evening Mah Jongg Class in East Raleigh. The normal amount of time it takes me to get there should be 35 minutes. In rush hour, maybe an hour. I gave myself an hour and fifteen minutes. It took almost an hour and forty five minutes.

There were three MAJOR accidents along my 26 mile route. I kept getting rerouted by my GPS and as I would cross over my original road I would see the lights flashing of the accident.

The last accident I had to drive right past as it was on the exit ramp of I 40, which was closed to traffic on both the off ramp and on ramp. There were no less that fifty emergency vehicles. I could not see the exact accident, but it had to be a doozy.

I just made it to class with no time to spare. After three hours I got back in the car to go home and the last horrible accident was still an active scene, but now with half as many emergency Vehicles. My god, what happened there that they were still removing things?

The only explanation for all these accidents on a warm dry day was daylight saving time. The loss of that one hour throws people off so badly they make a fatal error. Why do we do this craziness of setting the clocks forward and back? I still haven’t corrected the clock in my car. I am so spoiled by my Apple Watch and iPhone for the correct time.

Thankfully I planned a very easy week so I have slept as long as I have wanted. To make up for it I gathered all the tax information today. Seemed like an appropriate punishment for a good lie in. Thank goodness I did get plenty of sleep. You have to be on your toes out on the road. Be careful.

It’s the Economy, Stupid

Economics is a complicated area of study. My college grade in Macro is proof. Many things in economics are intertwined. An easy example is when interest rates go up not as many people build houses on spec. If people are not building as many house the demand for lumber goes down. When the demand goes down so does the price. When the price goes down so does the need for more workers in the lumber industry. When those workers get laid off they can’t buy new things like cars.

So the demand for cars goes down. So there is less need for steel to build new cars and fewer workers needed to make steel or build cars. So those people get laid off. So they can’t afford to go on vacation. So there are fewer people flying. So airlines make less money. When all these industries make less money their stocks go down.

I know that is a simplified example, but we are all interconnected economically. So when the government slashes jobs the government is not just saving money on what it paid those workers. Because those workers spent money and paid taxes that keep the economy working.

When we cut Snap benefits, which you might know as Food stamps, then children go to school hungry, and hungry children do not learn. But it’s not just about hunger, it’s also about the economy. When someone spends snap benefits, they do it at a local store. Thanks to those snap benefits the store make more profit, and pays more employees, who then spend their pay check in the local economy and pay taxes. All that money moving through the economy is what helps America grow and makes the stock market go up.

Uncertainty is what makes the stock market go down. In less than two months Trump has enacted policies that have affected the stock market in the most negative way of any newly elected president.

I know that many people voted for him because they thought he would be better for the economy. Are you better off today? If so, how?

Is Mah Jongg Class a Party?

There is a difference between a class and a party? Mah Jongg is no different. You can go to a Mah Jongg Class or you can go to a Mah Jongg Party. At a class you are going to learn things. The teacher should have a plan for how you will learn. Will it be fun? It should be. If you are not having fun learning a game you need a different teacher. Eventually at mah Jongg class you will get to play mah Jongg. Food and drink is not the focus, although you may have some of that.

At a mah Jongg party you you should also have fun. You should get to play and perhaps enjoy some libations and food. You can talk to your friends and make new ones.

The big difference between a class and a party is at one you are there to learn at the other you are there to play. At both you can have fun.

When I teach beginner Mah Jongg the first class is hard. There is a lot to learn and I have spent years perfecting the process so that the most people can learn the most information in a systematic way. The first class is foundational and if you don’t get a firm foundation it is not as much fun further down the road.

Today I had a lovely group of students at their friend’s beautiful house. Half of the class showed up with a bottle of wine. Before a cork was popped I told them that if they were a person who thought they could learn to fly a 747 on an active runway, then they might be able to drink a glass of wine and learn Mah Jongg. Most of them waited for wine until later.

It was a good idea. Learning something complicated is hard enough. Wine does not aid you in anyway to learn. It is not like learning a dance, where a little loosening up might help you. It is more like learning to fly a jet.

So thanks to those ladies today who heard my message and waited. It will pay off in the long run. Once you “learn” mah Jongg you can have a glass of wine while you “play” mah Jongg. Class is not a party, but it still can be fun.

Potato Leek Soup Juzzed Up

We haven’t had enough soup this winter so before the clocks spring forward I made a pot of soup. I got some beautiful leeks at the farmers market so that inspired me.

5 leeks, just the white and very light green parts sliced and cleaned

4 Yukon gold potatoes, cubed into one inch cubes

3 T. Butter

6 c. Chicken broth

1 t. Thyme

4 cloves of garlic minced

1 cup half and half

Juice of one lemon

1 T. Trader Joe’s Multi purpose Umami Seasoning

1 T. Trader Joe’s Cuban Style Citrusy Garlic Seasoning

Salt and Peoper

Melt the butter in a big stockpot. Add the leeks and cook on medium, stirring regularly For five minutes. Add the garlic and the Thyme 1 t. Salt and a bunch of black pepper. Continue cooking for another five minutes.

Add the chicken broth and the potatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through.

Remove pot from heat and using a immersion blender, blend the soup. Add the cream, lemon juice and seasoning. Taste for salt and add More Traders Joes seasoning as you like.

I Can’t Read Your Hand Writing

When I teach Mah Jongg I have people sign in on my little Mah Jongg book with their name and email address. The one thing I ask, “Please write your email address so I can read it.”

So many people have lost all ability to hand write. Sometimes they are just shaky writers. They can’t help that as it comes with age. Sadly, those are usually the people who had beautiful hand writing at one point.

Some people write certain letters in a stylized way. That is a disaster. I have a terrible time telling the difference in u or v, or a or o, or i or l. The worst is when someone has a zero in their email address and they don’t put a slash through it so I think it is an O. O and 0 look the same.

If you have a dot in your email address you need to leave plenty of space between the letter that precedes it and the letter that proceeds it and make the DOT BIG.

Don’t even get me started on the @ sign. That symbol sometimes takes on a life of its own. If your email ends in gmail.com I can usually figure out what you wrote right before Gmail is an @, but if you have some off brand email all bets are off.

So people, please practice writing your email in block letters. No cursive, leave spaces between and reread it and make sure it is clear. I apologize if you were waiting for an email from me and it never came. I tried. I tried multiple ways. IT just kept bouncing back. If your email is not your name, then you have to really make sure it is legible. Even if it is your name, then make sure they both are readable.

The Joy of A Good Book

I spent a lot of time in the car this week driving to and from Smithfield for classes. The classes were great, but driving an hour both ways at 11:30 on the morning and back again at 9 pm, getting home after 10 makes for a long day.

Today was my third day. I had an early doctors appointment on the way to class so my day started even earlier. One of my sweet beginner students, Ella Ann, invited to her house during my break. I had a little over an hour of down time and she originally offered me a room to lie down in.

I certainly didn’t need to lie down, but I was happy to sit and have a cup of tea with her and talk. It was such a nice visit as she is just about the nicest person. I was not surprised by that since I know four of her five children, who are all wonderful people, as well as four of her many grand children.

We got to talking about books we have read in our book clubs and we had very similar tastes in books. I told her I listened to many books during my drives and this week was no different. I have been listening to my book club’s book and have been so annoyed. The reader does different voices for different characters. There are two children in this book and when the reader does those voices they are much louder and very obnoxious. They are so much louder than the main character I have to turn the volume down in the car when “they are speaking.”

Ella and I both agreed that life is too short to read mediocre books when there are so many wonderful books. Right now the jury is out on the book I am listening too. The bad reader might be ruining it for me, but I will keep at it since it is for book club.

Ella Ann promised to send me the list of her favorite books she has read in the past couple of years. Maybe my book club will chose one from her list.

Where’s the new Card?

“No, I haven’t seen the new Mah Jongg Card yet.” Only the people at the National Mah Jongg League who create the new card have seen it and I am pretty sure they aren’t talking. So for all you people who are buying cards off Amazon, claiming you have the new card, you don’t. It’s counterfeit. You might have a card, but it is not the card.

I hope my new card comes as close to April 1 as possible. I have given myself eight days to do all my analysis and learn the new card and write the power point “New card” lesson. Creating last year’s 81 slide power point took me every bit of seven days.

It will be similar this year. The 2024 card was a big departure from the 2023. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for 2025. I really need something good to happen in 2025.

So for all my students awaiting the new card class, it’s coming. I just scheduled one more class in Greensboro. That will make 15 different new card classes in 12 cities. I look forward to seeing you at one of them or on the zoom class.

Asking for Clarification

Tonight I was teaching a beyond beginner class. One of the tables was a group of friends who play together every week. I taught them beginner a few months ago and they have faithfully been playing.

When I asked if anyone had any questions one of the young women brought up a scenario that had taken place last week. She wanted to exchange two tiles for two exposed jokers at the same time. Her friends told her she could only do one per turn so she listened to them and that was what she did, even though she thought her friends were wrong.

So she asked me who was right. It turns out all her friends were wrong and she was right. I said, “why didn’t you text me for the answer.” She said they played late at night and they knew I didn’t answer after 9pm.

Sometimes it is hard when you are all new players to get the right answer to an obscure technical question. But always ask an impartial expert, even if it is after the fact. The loudest or the bossiest person is not always right.

If you take note of the situation you can at least get the right answer for the next time this happens. Learning all the rules correctly takes time. It is also OK to make a mistake and learn from it. You usually learn best from a failure.

All my students know they can text me to answer questions. I would rather have you get the right answer and play correctly than have you make up your own rules because you don’t remember what I taught you the first time. You can’t learn it all in one sitting and even though I might have told you it does not mean that you learned it all.

Day of Birthday Celebrations

I had two friends whose birthdays I celebrated today. The first was my friend Judy. I met Judy right when we moved to Durham and learned to play Mah Jongg with her. Judy is a little older than I am so she was always good for advice. But she is best at telling a good joke. Her timing and delivery can’t be beat.

So today Jan organized a brunch with Judy, Diane, Helen, Deanna and myself. Jan, Diane along with Judy were in my original mah Jongg group. We were only missing Roz. Deanna joined us some years later after she and I learned to play bridge from Helen and Jan. We all love games and each other.

It was not a big birthday, but at this age they all are big. It is just nice to be together.

My second birthday group was my secret stitching group. Since it is a secret I can not reveal who is in it, or whose birthday we were celebrating, but it was fun as it always is. We are not doing presents anymore which makes me happy since I don’t want more stuff, no matter how good it is.

Being with my stitchers reminds me I have to get on making my Christmas exchange ornaments. I had a good idea while I was working on my chair seat. I am working on number three and it feel like it is going on forever. This is probably because I have been working for months on background. It was good to do while catching up with the stitching news.

So many celebrations on one day. Thank goodness for some good news.

I’m so Proud of My Church

Today was youth Sunday at Westminster Presbyterian. What that means is the youth of the church run the whole church service. They have Pastor Alex as their leader, but he does not write, or read or preach. The kids do all of that.

For the record we are a church whose motto is Micah 6:8 “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.” It’s a tall order, but one we do not swerve from. These days I feel like there are a lot of “Christians” in name only. To be fair, they may not ever hear the teaching of the Jesus who took care of the poor and the sinners if those Christians have preachers who cherry pick the Bible and divide rather than unite people.

Loving all people is a tall order. Trust me I am not good at it, but I do believe that Jesus taught us to take care of those with the least.

Getting back to the service today…seven young people who are all seniors in high school were given the task on preaching the lectionary today which was from Luke. It was a difficult passage, but each one rose to occasion. Of the seven one was a trans child of god and the other non-binary and they spoke their truth without apology. It made my heart happy that in this time when anyone who is considered “other” can easily be persecuted, but at Westminster they are loved.

These people are children of God, just all any other and as I have been taught at Westminster, “God didn’t make any junk.” So none of us humans should cast dispersions.

After the service the youth served a lunch and we had the “cake” auction to raise money for the youth group. We had to add tables so many members came to the lunch and auction and we raised a great amount of money for youth programs because we all know that the things these kids learn in youth group are making the next generation of leaders for our country of kind, caring and loving humans.

I am proud of this place where all are welcome and know they are loved without reservation or qualification.

Great to be Home

Russ and I arrived home Thursday night to an empty refrigerator. We had plenty in the freezer to eat yesterday, but needed fresh food today. We try and buy local as much as possible so we were thrilled that farmer’s market was open this morning.

Supporting local farmers in important to us not just because the food tastes better and is organic, but because it greatly reduces our foot print since all the vendors in Durham have to be from with in 50 miles away, with the exception of seafood from the coast. If you don’t support local agriculture there could come a day when we don’t have fresh fruits and vegetables because we would be dependent on other countries.

This time of year we are able to get Kale, leaks, cabbage and mushrooms. We also got flounder from the coast. I came home and make mushroom soup adding some dried mushrooms to make the mushroom broth along with the fresh mushrooms. For dinner we had slaw from our local cabbage, flounder and mashed butternut squash. It was simple and yummy.

I also bought a fresh juice from my favorite vendor. Todays favorite mixture was watermelon, green apple, celery and ginger. I use this juice as the base of a mocktail, adding ginger beer and lime juice. Such a refreshing treat.

The Durham farmers’s market is such a joy where people of all walks of life come to enjoy the bounty’s of our region.