Mah Jongg Clothing I Didn’t Know Existed

Today was the last day in a three class series. I had a fabulous group of beginners who are now mah Jongg graduates. My beyond beginner group was so much fun. Four ladies who were new students to me were in the class. The first day Terri showed up in a pickleball and mah Jongg together shirt. Yesterday she had a joker tile shirt. And today’s shirts took the cake.

“Draw, Discard, Swear, Repeat.”

We all agreed the Swear should have been in the second position, or we would add an additional swear after Draw.

Clearly I have never explored the Mah Jongg Clothing line. Terri said she is addicted to both Pickleball and Mah Jongg and that is all she does. Her clothing clearly reflects that.

I love me some dedicated Mah Jongg Students.

Getting Old Sucks

Life is not fair to old ladies. At some point you might start leaking. That is what has happened to the little brown old ladies that lives at our house. Sometimes she can’t be bothered to wake up in the night and tell us she might need to go outside.

Her doctor gave her some pills to help this, but they just don’t always work. So now this little brown old lady has to wear a diaper to go to bed. What a good sport she is. She does not complain about it. She is happy to just get to go to sleep and not be bothered.

This diaper situation has made her people so much happier. There is no disappointment in the morning. Everyone is happy. Diapers aren’t that bad, especially since they just get thrown in the washer.

Getting old sucks, but staying dry makes it better.

Happy Birthday Smartie

Seventeen years ago today Russ bought his little Smart Convertible. A few years before we were at the Paris Car show and we were able to test drive one because they wanted Americans to buy them. Russ loved it. Amazingly his 6’5” frame fit perfectly in the tiny car and my oh so large body did too, thanks to the seats being slightly offset from each other.

Russ waited patiently for the Smart to eventually come to America and bought the first one in the state of North Carolina. The Mercedes dealer in Cary sold the Smarts. Why I will never know, but we still take it there to be serviced.

Carter loved the Smart and was very excited to see it the day we went to pick it up. Russ drives it still and I am sure keep it as long as it runs. So Happy Birthday to our little Smart car. We certainly have gotten our money’s worth out of it.

A Facebook Rabbit Hole

As a Mah Jongg teacher I get so many Mah Jongg Facebook and instagram posts. I try and ignore most of them unless they are from one of my students. But after teaching over 27,000 people over three decades I just don’t remember all their names. Sometimes I read something because I think it is from someone I taught. Then I get sucked in and discover I never taught this person. I can always tell because I teach differently from the majority of other people who “teach” Mah Jongg.

Here was today’s rabbit hole I never should have gotten into. Someone asked “Why do you do the 2nd Charleston? We don’t. It seems Unnecessary. What am I missing?”

I responded that I know exactly why she is asking this, and offered my beyond beginner class. I did not explain why I know and how I would help because that is what my whole business is.

She was not interested, not that I was really thinking she would be, based on her comments. But I always like to learn what issues people are having with Mah Jongg because knowing that helps me develop new curriculum and ways of teaching.

What I didn’t tell this person is I can tell she was taught incorrectly right from the start. And based on all the other responders to her post, so were they.

If you want to learn mah jongg make sure it is from someone who is interested in strategy and can talk with you about the game in a deeper way than just the rules. Mah Jongg is a game of many rules and half as many exceptions, so those are important, but someone needs to be able to explain why you need to do things a certain way.

This Face Book poster who stops the Charleston probably decides what hand she is going to play based on the tiles she is dealt. That is a very novice way to play. Most people never get past the novice stage and they don’t even know it.

If you want to know more, or feel like you are a novice and would like to be more than a novice, come to my Beyond Beginner Class. Www.learnmahjongg.com

So many people stop the Charleston and they are missing out on improving their hand. Don’t stop the Charleston!

Not Fitting Behavior for an Old Lady

Last night we went to the baseball game leaving Shay home alone. She is a 14 year old dog who has spent plenty of time at home alone. For the most part she is very well behaved. We went with our friends whose animals are not always as well behaved and there is always talk about having to get home to see if the house is still standing.

Well, last night their animals were angels, but we came home to a brown little puppy covered in fluff. At first I thought Shay had just destroyed one of her fur babies and the fluff that was all over her was fake fur. But then I noticed foam all over the hallway and up the stairs into the next hallway and then into the guest room.

Russ had taken the sheets off the guest room bed and put them in the wash leaving the foam mattress pad exposed. Shay had gone in and destroyed the foam mattress pad. We are not exactly sure why, but she was quite proud of herself until we told her otherwise.

It just is not becoming for an old ladies like Shay to throw such a temper tantrum.

Durham and the Bulls for the Win

Lynn and Logan wanted to go to the Bulls so off we went tonight. It’s terrible we don’t go more as season ticket holders since the start. It was hot, but we were in the shade.

The national anthem was sung by a children’s choir from a local church. There must have been at least 40 of them. Boys in matching striped shirts with jeans (heavens to betsy jeans in 95° weather) and the girls in blue and white matching dresses with white bows in their hair.

They were a multicultural crowd of children of every color of the rainbow and they strongly sang the national anthem proudly. My first thought was I pray ICE was not in the house. My second was, this is exactly what American should stand for. The proudest Americans are the newest Americans. People work so hard to become American, or they used too, because they saw this as a land of opportunity. Not a place that snatches up people off the street based on their skin color and drags them to a dangerous concentration camp.

I hope that Durham continues to be a place where young children can feel safe, no matter how long their people have been here.

The kids stayed and watched the game which was very exciting. The Bulls won with three single home runs, locking out the jumbo shrimp of Jacksonville. Durham wins not just in Baseball, but in compassion.

Good Barter

Eight classes this week. Six at the beach, one in Raleigh, last one tonight in Durham. I am wiped. But the Durham’s class had a bunch of people I really like in it and some I just met. I’m sure I will like them too.

One of the young members of the class really wanted to learn mah Jongg. She is a baker and so she asked me if I would be willing to receive baked goods as a barter for the class. How could I turn down a young person offering baked goods?

I left it up to her what she might bring me. Well, it was a very nice large tray, (which she also gave me) of focaccia, bread, cookies and mixed berry crostatas. Russ is very excited for breakfast. The cookies have already gone in the freezer. If you come to visit me you might get one. She also brought cookies to the class.

I get one day of rest tomorrow, thank goodness and then Sunday I start up with eight classes next week. More than I like in a week, especially two weeks in a row, but since I am leaving for Maine and will be off for over five weeks I let people talk me into extra classes.

Student Endorsement Joy

I am a student of all the different ways people learn. I am always trying to improve my teaching by coming up with the most efficient ways to teach. I am not a student of the way other people teach, but I learn from my students how they have been taught so I have gained a lot of insight in the ways other’s do it.

I had a wonderful group of women in my beyond beginner class this week at Coral Bay. About half of them had learned Mah Jongg from the start from me and the other half had learned from other people, but wanted to further their education.

I asked those students new to me to try and set their tiles up in a different way from the way they were taught. I explained my reasoning. I got a little push back as they said their “Teacher” had told them to do it this way. I asked them to try it my way just for these three days.

Today one of those new to me students came into class early to tell me a story. She said she went home the first day after class, not convinced I was right and wanting to get evidence that they way she was taught was the best way. She researched all the other mah Jongg teachers she could find and all of them except for one taught the way she first learned. Ah ha! She was right, but she didn’t tell me that the second day.

She came to class. We practiced what I taught and we won every game. So she went home from the class and decided to practice online. She told me she never plays against the computer because she says you can never beat the computer, but she saw us beat the computer every time that day. So she gave it to me try. She won 8 out of ten games, something that she had never even come close to before when she set up the tiles the way she was taught.

It only took two days with me and she was a convert to my method. Now she could see many new and better possibilities.

It made my heart so happy that she was so skeptical, but was willing to try a new way and found success so quickly.

I told her, most people who teach mah Jongg don’t study how people think, they way I do. Just teaching people the rules does not make learning this game fun. You have to help people learn to see possibilities and weigh the options in ways that work for their brains.

I am constantly changing the way I teach and coming up with improvements. You might think you know how to play mah jongg, but I teach you how to win mah jongg.

Mah Jongg Marathon

After teaching Mah Jongg all day and then coming back to Jill’s house what do you think we should do? Well invite Mary Jo to come over and play Mah a Jongg. Only take a break to eat a yummy low country boil dinner and get right back to mah Jongg.

Do I have time to write a blog. No way. It’s been a big day of Mah Jongg. I did get to have lunch with Charlotte between my classes, but we had a hard time finishing our conversation because at least 20 women came in to have lunch who I needed to hug and say hi too as they all were past students.

Charlotte was a good sport about all that. I am running out of people at the coral Bay Club who don’t know how to play Mah Jongg yet. But I did talk to them about a new idea for next summer. More info to come on that later.

Now I need to pass out so I can finish these last classes strong tomorrow.

The Friend of My Friend is My Friend

So far that phrase has held true almost 100% of the time. The friend of my friend is my friend.

If you are my friend it means I like you and usually that I trust you. Liking someone is fairly easy, but trusting someone is a bigger step. Trust is more important to me.

I honestly think I trust all of my friends. If I don’t trust someone I usually don’t like them much either and there is nowhere to go with me if those two factors don’t exist.

Figuring out if you like someone can take time and trust even longer. But there is a short cut. If you start with someone new, who is already the friend of someone else you like and trust then it’s like having a reference for them as a friend. So you can get to like and trust them twice as fast.

Tonight I am at the beach staying with my friend Jill. Our friends Martha and Bit could not be with us this week. We had so much fun being together last year so that is sad. So Jill invited her very dear friend Annette to visit during my visit. I quickly discovered she is so fun. And it was a short cut to liking her because she is Jill’s great friend and I adore Jill.

I can remember in grammar school when I had a friend who had another good friend who went to a different school. My friend talked about her all the time and I was a little jealous. Then I met her friend and I liked her, and the three of us became friends together.

My original friend said, “You guys really became good friends quickly.” In a kind of snarky way. I remember it like it was yesterday because I told her, “If she’s good enough for you she’s good enough for me.” And then she said, “I just want you both to still like me.” Oh Youth. It takes a long time to realize you can have more than one friend. And having a new one does nothing to diminish the old one.

Friends are like love. There is always the capacity to have more. So sharing your friends with each other is a joy. Thanks Jill, sharing Annette with me. It’s always great to meet a new friend.

How Can Jane be 70?

My darling friend Jane has her big birthday tomorrow. I was so lucky to be able to come to Kinston to celebrate with her and see my Kinston Friends. So I made a big day of it.

I brought my car into Massey to get serviced so it is ready to go to Maine. I can’t say it enough that they are the best car dealership in America. I talked to Mike Martin while I waited for my car, which made the time fly by.

I drove by Chick-fil-A to get some chicken and my friend Kristi was next to me. “I thought you were in Bermuda,” I said. She had just gotten back. Then I went to Walgreens and drove right past my friend Becky, but she didn’t see me. I love a small town. I saw more people I knew in 45 minutes just driving around.

I went to Debbie and Paul’s house where I am staying tonight and rested a little before Debbie and I went to Francis’s House to swim and celebrate Jane. It was a perfect day, but much too fast.

I didn’t get to play Mah Jongg with Paul, so I am just going to have to come back.

The best part is I got celebrate Jane’s big birthday, even if it was a day before her actual day. Sadly I did not see her husband Warren. Next trip. I will always be coming back to Kinston. I just love all my friends here.

Be Like Stephen Corbett

The canceling of Stephen Corbett’s show has been very upsetting to me. When a voice who speaks truth to power is silenced we are in trouble. I consider Stephen Colbertt a modern day prophet. He points out the injustices and calls out the evil in ways we can handle, through humor. Without prophets the only voices we hear are of the evil doers.

Today in church we read a declaration of faith that was written in the Presbyterian church in the late sixties, another troubled time and approved in the early 70’s and as all things in the Presbyterian church moved slowly through committee for adoption in 1977.

This one part of it spoke very loudly to me:

Good people of conscience need to continue to speak out against the ones who oppress the poor and and want us to worship them. We must listen to the prophets who call out the evil doers and not become complacent because we ourselves are comfortable.

We know right from wrong, but can not turn a blind eye to the wrong doers. They might try and take Steven Corbett’s show on one channel, but he does not have to be silenced everywhere. And when he can’t speak, it is time for us all to speak up as he would also do.

You can become a prophet too. Speak truth to power. Do not be afraid. Follow God’s hardest commandment to love your neighbor. And if you didn’t know, everyone is your neighbor.

Dreams Do Come True

I know I’ve told this story before, but now it has a happy ending. When Carter was about 4 years old, Russ was off on a long business trip so Carter and I spent all our time together. One night we went to the mall for dinner. We parked by Sears and walked in the store through the appliance department to get to the restaurant inside the mall.

On our walk back through the totally customer empty Sears after dinner we lingered by a cherry red washer dryer set. They were a first for colors in white goods since the fifties. Carter stood, mouth open staring at the magnificent pair. A bored salesman with no other prospects approached us to gage our interest in purchasing said machines. Before I could respond to his inquires Carter responded wistfully for us, “We are just dreaming.”

I am certain the appliance salesman thought I was a single mother living in a trailer and that we had no washer and dryer, the way that Carter responded, like a child used to poverty. Why else would a child be dreaming about appliances?

Russ asked ChatGPT to make a drawing of the scene. His favorite pastime this week.

Fast forward 22 years and Carter and Claire purchased their own Navy Blue Washer and Dryer set. Carter’s dream has finally come true. I wish that Sears guy had been the one to sell it to her because he had to have a little soft spot for the little girl who dreamed about getting a new washer.

Congratulations Carter and Claire. Now go wash some clothes.

Love of Trader Joe’s

Two weeks ago there was a terrible tropical storm that dropped over 8 inches of rain in Chapel Hill in a day. The shopping center where my Trader Joe’s is was flooded. The location has a history of being flooded, but this flood was by far the worst.

Every store and restaurant was devastated. So many were small locally owned businesses. The losses were crushing. I hope that they had flood insurance and that they can all recover.

Trader Joe’s, although not a mom and Pop, has a very loyal group of employees who have been there for a decade or more. The loss of Trader Joe’s for me is sad, not devastating, unless it never comes back.

Today I was teaching a private mah Jongg lesson in Raleigh. When it was over I ran by the Raleigh Trader Joe’s to pick up some of our favorites. While I was rolling my cart through the aisles looking for the Dark French roast coffee Russ likes I saw one of the guys from my Trader Joe’s. Then I saw a gal from my Trader Joe’s. I approached her and gave her my condolences. We don’t know each other, but she said she recognized me as one of her customers from Chapel Hill.

She told me the good news is they are rehabbing the store right now and hopes for it to be open in a few weeks. Hooray! I was so worried that everything would be shut down permanently. We need a Trader Joe’s near by.

Figure 8 was Just Great

I just returned home from three great days teaching at the Figure 8 Island yacht Club. It was a perfectly wonderful three days of classes with so many fabulous women. This was my second summer there and it was even better than last year.

I am not exactly sure how I lucked into this career, but I am so thankful that at this late stage of life this is what I get to do. Teaching mah Jongg is part stand up, part story teller, and part bossy older sister.

As much as I love teaching beginners, that is easy. Teaching people rules is fine. Lots of people do it just fine.

Teaching the Beyond the beginner class is not a class that I have found anyone else does, certainly not the way I do it. Beyond beginner is teaching people how to think and strategy and it is as much fun for me as it is for the students. At least they tell me it’s fun and they come back again and again as every class is different.

Thanks Figure 8 Ladies for being such a great group. I look forward to our paths crossing again.

Games with Lane

You would think that I would have enough of games after teaching 6 hours of mah Jongg today, but nooo. I am staying at my friend’s Lane and Jon’s house while I am teaching at figure 8. Jon is always kind enough to let me stay as he is usually the one who is here when I am. Last night we went out to dinner at a real restaurant, where he wore a collared shirt. If you know him, you know.

Today Lane made a special trip to come down to the coast early so we could actually see each other. I love Jon, but I really miss Lane when she is not here. We have been friends for 30 years.

We went out to a great Asian restaurant on the early side so that gave Lane and I a bunch of time to come back to the house and play Rummy cube. Lane is most excellent at it.

She jokingly told me that she went in a shop in Raleigh this week and the sweet woman who owns it, and had taken mah Jongg from me, said “you are famous because you are friends with Dana.” Lane laughingly told me her reply was, “Yes, but I have been friends with her before she became the mah Jongg guru.”

I so cherish my dear friend Lane and all our years together. There is nothing better than friends who you can just hang with. And play games.

Who is Keeping an Eye on Ghislaine?

Oh my, 47 is not happy about all this Epstein talk. When he comes out and says, “Stop talking about Epstein.” You know that is all anyone wants to talk about, unless you are some lapdog.

So maybe the DOJ Barbie might destroy evidence, wouldn’t put it past her. She seems to lick the right things for her boss (sorry if that was too graphic.)

So here is my one thought on this whole thing. There is one person alive who seems to know a lot of the particulars on this whole story and that Ghislaine. Since she is stuck in jail with apparently nothing left to lose she could blow this whole thing up and tell everything she knows. I am certain those who don’t want anyone to know, know this.

So my question is who is making sure Ghislaine is not off’d in jail? Chances are high that Epstein did not kill himself. If anything happens to her, mark my words, it is a sure sign that everyone we think is guilty is and they did her in. Just sayin’. ..

A Rare Weekend Mah Jongg Class in Durham

A friend from church got mah Jongg as her birthday present. That means she has to learn how to play. When she contacted me about getting in a class it became apparent that none of the scheduled classes would fit in her calendar. So I offered a rare weekend and she took me up on it. Since she does not have a full class of friends to join her I am opening up this class to others.

If you want to learn beginner Mah Jongg I have some space in this class which will be held Friday, July 25 6:30-9:30PM, Sunday, July 27 2-5 PM, and Monday, July 28 6:30-9:30. If you are interested contact me or to learn more visit my website www.learnmahjongg.com

Sometimes short notice is the best notice because you know now if you are free those days or not.

I Stand with Rosie

When I woke up this morning to the news that 47 wants to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship, I knew that meant he was trying to keep our eye off something else stupid. That and he likes to float crazy ideas out there to see how much he can get away with.

Well, this is just too far. Rosie O’Donnell was born in America to American citizens. Nothing 47 can do about that. I met Rosie O’Donnell when she was RoseAnn O’Donnell. I was a sophomore at Dickinson college and she was a freshman. One of my sorority sisters, Lori Edwards came to a sister’s meeting and said, “I am directing one of the freshman plays this year and you need to come see this Rose Ann O’Donnell. She is amazing.” So I did. And she was. Sadly, Carlisle, Pa. was too far from any comedy club so she transferred to BU and the rest is history.

So my brush with Rosie is an aside, I have followed her career because of it. The one thing I know is Rosie is a match for 47. She has scrambled with him for years. She at least has honesty on her side and as far as I can tell, she is showing no signs of dementia.

The whole premise that 47 thinks he can take away citizenship is ridiculous, but it makes us look at that and not what the hell is going on with the Epstein client list, or the fact that FEMA did not answer 2/3’s of the call from the Texas disaster because ICE Barbie did not bother to renew the contract for the call center.

Tarriffs are killing our businesses, ICE is taking children off the streets and handcuffing them and marching them in lines, tethered to a chain, into detention, and allegedly Department of Justice has lied to so many federal judges and those judges have the evidence.

The lawsuits for all the illegality that ICE is doing will eventually start pouring in and it will take years, but we the taxpayers will have to pay the damages for all this. 47 will be dead by the time that happens, but it started with him.

We can not sit idly by and let our government set up concentration camps in Florida. That is what they are. Speak out. Demand our legislators to follow the law or vote them out. If 47 can try and take citizenship away from Rosie O’Donnell he can do it to you. And if you let him do it once, it will be too late to do anything about it for the future.

America belongs to the people, not the President.

My Boring Life Continues

I set aside time around the forth of July to get some much needed projects done around the house. That time is coming to an end and I feel like I was only about 30% productive. I did finish my third needlepoint seat and took it to the upholster to finish. I have not yet drawn my final chair seat, opting to work on some small ornaments for a change.

After coming home from the farmer’s market I decided to try and make more progress cleaning out my closet. I started with shoes a couple weeks ago. I did some of the hanging clothes last week, but not all. I also worked on folded pants last week. Today I cleaned out the wire drawers.

I came across some bathing suits, which have to be twenty years old, whose elastic has given way. I found a T-shirts from the inaugural Turkey trot Hannah started at DA in 2014. I unearthed a night gown I must have worn when Carter was a baby. Why these things were still in my closet goes to fact that once something goes in a drawer it rarely goes out.

I did add some labels so I will know what is in these drawers despite the fact that I can actually see everything through the wires. I have another large bag to donate and another to recycle.

It feels great to get this job behind me. I am a creature of habit. I think I found a dozen pairs of jeans all more or less the same profile, but in three sizes. (This after I already purged four sizes.) Hopefully two of those sizes I won’t need, but that will take a few more months.

It was a boring job, but glad that part is behind me. I still need to finish the hanging clothes. Maybe tomorrow. It’s boring, but great to get it off my never ending list.

Are They Really a Mah Jongg Teacher?

I recently had a student who took a class at a local spot. According to the student, the “teacher” had only recently learned to play mah Jongg herself and decided to open a mah Jongg business. I just love how much mah Jongg has taken off. I love that people love it so much they want to share it with others. What I don’t love is that people who don’t really know everything about the game are charging others to “teach” them.

The new-to-me student told me how frustrating it was in her other class because the “teacher” didn’t teach her, or the other members of the class. Instead they just dealt the tiles out and started playing. When asked about rules, the explanations were haphazard and the teacher told then,”she doesn’t want people to be too bothered by rules, but just have fun.”

If you come to a class you should be taught in an organized way all the rules as well as the strategy. Someone who is more interested in selling you things or has only been playing mah Jongg less than a few years may not really be a teacher.

It frustrates me that these disorganized teachers ruin the Mah Jongg well, because so many people go to the “class” and give up because the game is too complicated to not be taught in a precise way.

If you “learned” mah Jongg by sitting next to someone who was playing or from a class that felt disorganized I am happy to take you on a more deliberate journey to really love and understand this game.

I have a beyond beginner class at Home for Entertaining in Cary in July that can help you learn how to “think” like a mah Jongg pro and fill in your missing knowledge you might not even know is missing.

Before you sign up for a mah Jongg class find out how long and how many other students your teacher has taught. I have been doing it 27 years to over 25,000 students. I can tell you the way I teach mah Jongg has greatly evolved over the years. Understanding all the different ways people learn is key to being able to make sure every student goes away knowing how to play.

You just can’t go around a table and tell people what tile to play. You have to explain the why so people can learn. I know mah Jongg is at a craze point right now. Many retailers find holding mah Jongg events at their stores is a great way to get customers in. An event is not always a class and the person running it may not be anything close to a teacher. Go in knowing the difference.

If you want to take classes with me visit my website www.learnmahjongg.com. to find where I will be teaching. If I am not teaching near you, contact me about setting up a class. Beginner classes are for people who want to learn the rules and how to play the game. If you think you know how to play the Beyond Beginner class is the most fun way to get to be a better player. Mah Jongg is a great lifetime game. Learn responsibly. You will love it so much more if you are taught correctly from the start.

Creating Day

I got tired of organizing my office. I have barley made a dent thanks to getting tied up reading old files of awards Carter received and letters from friends no longer walking amongst us. So I turned to what I love to do, art and crafts. I am a natural maker. I like to be creating or making something all the time.

One of my cute students at the beach showed me a tote she monogrammed. It was such a fun bag that I decided I needed to make one for myself. I had purchased the plain bag a couple of weeks ago. I pulled it out of the closet and picked a thread color from my huge stash off needlepoint fibers.

I got to work cross stitching my monogram on the bag. It didn’t take long because I first drew out the design on graph paper to make sure I got all the proportions correct.

It was a fast stitch job and now I have a personalized tote to take to the beach next week. I needed to create something today. Tomorrow I go back to teaching. Definitely something I need to do. Organizing will have to wait.

Dinner Before the Rain

We planned a nice dinner with Lynn and Logan on the roof of the Lenny, a new restaurant downtown. It over looks the ball park where there was some kind of player showcase going on. The weather was nice when we sat down. We ordered too much food. We liked the fried artichoke and the flat bread the most. The portions are very large and the prices aren’t bad.

As we were enjoying our dinner looking west we could see a huge storm off in the distance. It was fairly slow moving. We were able to enjoy almost our dinner when suddenly the temperature dropped a good ten degrees in about ten seconds. The wind at our eleventh floor elevation picked up fast, scattering some of our food across the terrace.

Our first thought was for our skittish dogs at our respective homes. Shay would be nervous, but Annie Toms has been known to tear up expensive furniture, so we rushed out.

Just as I was driving us out of the parking garage the rain started. Drop drop then immediate sheets. Since everything is already saturated from last weeks deluge the water was just rushing to the low places. We are lucky we got home when we did before all routes home became impassible. Going to rain for the next three days.

Old Dog, New Tricks

I was today years old when I learned how to make chicken salad in a blink of an eye. I have been making chicken salad for over half a century. That’s a really long time. And I always make it by chopping up chicken. It’s not hard, but it can be slow.

I have loved shredded chicken salad like we get at the Midtown Market in Danville. I just never tried to make shredded chicken salad because it was a huge extra step to shed the chicken.

Then I heard about shredding chicken using my kitchen aid mixer. WHAT?!?! I actually read about it on the Kitchen Aid website. You cook the chicken and put the hot chicken in the bowl with the paddle attachment. Turn the machine on low and sure enough in less than 30 seconds I had shredded 2 large whole breasts.

It would have taken me ten minutes to chop by hand and an additional ten minutes to shred. 30 seconds! How did I get to 64 without knowing this trick? You can teach this old dog a new trick.

Always Teaching

Always Teaching

Monday is a great day to get a pedicure. No one much thinks they need pretty nails for Tuesday. Since the salon was very quiet I thought I would have a very relaxing time needlepointing while my feet where pampered.

Since it was slow and quiet the man who was doing my feet must have been bored. He took a great interest in what I was working on. He want me to teach him how to needlepoint, while I wanted him to make my heels soft. The two did not exactly go together, but I showed him how to stitch while he sanded.

His favorite trick was learning how to thread the needle without trying to stuff the fiber in the eye. After a little lesson he asked me if they sold needlepoint at Walmart. I told him I saw not exactly sure, but that I got mine from Chapel Hill Needlepoint.

I know more and more men are needlepointing, but I am not sure this guy is going to show up at Nancy’s and pick out a project. He definitely has the dexterity to handle the needle. He did a great job on my toes, but my heels are still dry. Really not his fault.

Chore Helper?

There is one chore I hate doing. It’s filling my pill containers with my vitamins, supplements and prescriptions. I take such a large number of all these things on such a specific schedule I have to have a four times a day pill case. Filling these cases is a royal pain in the ass.

First, I have to have all of the elements. Then I have to put them in. It takes about an hour to do six weeks worth. It never fails that Shay wants to be involved. Not actually doing anything, just supervising, even if supervising means sleeping beside the cases while I work.

It never fails that I don’t have six weeks worth of every element while I am filling. So I fill as much as I can and then pray I remember to add the needed ingredients when they arrive. Getting old is so much work, but I must say these supplements are good for me. Just sorting them out is not. Having them all sorted does make taking them so much easier. I would never remember if I had taken them if I didn’t have it all portioned out.

My Favorite Find

In the continuation of the deep clean out of my paper office I came across a file folder I had not looked at in over 25 years. I knew it was in the drawer, but had not bothered to look at it. It was a folder filled with tiny scraps of paper with notes jotted on them. Some were written on the back of receipts, or torn from a pad of paper, most barley legible as I certainly wrote them in a hurry.

The identifying tag on the folder said, “Carter quotes.” Sometime when Carter was about three I made a book of photos with some of these quotes in it. As it is a favorite book for us to look at I thought that this folder was just the original source material for that book. What I discovered as I went through the folder is these were quotes that I kept saving long after she turned three. So most of these I have not read since I first wrote them down and threw them in the folder.

Here are some of my favorites:

“Sometimes my mind stops working and it wants to get away from my head.” March 23, 2003.

“Mommy, it’s like there is a glue between you and me and Daddy and it all comes back to you.”

April 8, 2005

Daddy took Carter to Duke Gardens. While there Carter asked for three Pennies to make wishes with in the fountain.

“I wish I could go back to Disney World.”

“I wish I could go back to San Francisco.”

“I wish I would be so good so I would make my angel proud of me.”

March 8, 2003

“Carter, what are we going to do about your room?”

“Mommy, I think we should just move.”

July 14, 2003

“Carter, please stop crying.”

“It’s too late. I already started.”

October 6, 2003

While looking at a scrap book I made her Carter said, “I wish I could start my life over again. It has been so great.”

October 18, 2003

“Mama, I love you more than the beautiful sun.”

November 30, 2003

“They just lost their minds Carter.”

“Mommy, who got their minds then?”

December 12, 2003

(I really wish I knew what my reply to that was.)

I said, “I have to go to your class on Thursday Carter. What should I say?”

“You should say almost everything you know.”

September 13, 2004

(Thank goodness she just wanted almost everything.)

Not a Day for Celebrations

Forgive me if I have a hard time celebrating today. I spent the last two and a half decades supporting the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. I can hardly celebrate the signing of the terrible awful bill that cuts support to feed hungry children.

We have all been witness to the failure of the the farce of trickle down economics. Making the uber rich even richer does not help the multitudes get jobs. One rich person can only buy or employee so many people. That one rich person getting richer does not mean they will quadruple their spending. So excuse me if I am skeptical that this bill will grow the economy in a way to cover the $2.4 trillion dollars the non-partisan Congressional Budget O ffice says will be added to the deficit In the next nine years.

We are saddling our children with a crushing debt, while we are cutting food to hungry children. Hungry children can not thrive. They fail in school, they have trouble becoming productive adults all for the want of the most basic human need. Food.

Children born into poverty were just unlucky. Why should we compound that by not helping them. When nuts say things like, “people need to pull themselves up by their boot straps,” they are assuming people have boots. Children without food have no bootstraps, let alone boots or apples or milk. The cruelty of this awful bill will have repercussions for a generation or more.

But you say, my children are fed. I work hard and take care of my own. But your children are going to grow up and need people to work with them, and be their doctors and nurses and teachers and run the grocery store and grow their food. Who will do all this?

I am so disappointed in those so called Christians who supported this bill. You should be ashamed because if you were true followers of Christ you would know that Jesus said to feed the hungry and care for the widows and orphans.

So on this anniversary of our country I weep. What have we become?

Office Time Capsule

Russ and I moved to our house July 3, 1994. We waited five days for our moving truck to show up. It was four days late and made me very nervous since everything we owned was in that truck. While we waited we went to Home Depot and found a dhuri rug that looked like a quilt pattern. We put it in my office. I needed a desk since I worked from home when I wasn’t on the road at clients.

The desk we ended up getting was a giant semi-circle with two long straight extensions on each side and three rolling file cabinets that sat underneath. It was a behemoth. I sprang for a red Herman miller chair and turned my office into a command center of commerce.

Those file cabinet drawers quickly filled up with all the tools I needed for work and eventually any important family items, like spare keys, insurance policies and every one of Carter’s report cards.

At one point I wanted a walking desk and the room would not accommodate the command center and a treadmill desk. By then I was only an editor at Durham Magazine, not an important business person. So Russ and I dismantled the behemoth. I moved one of the side extensions to the wall along with all three rolling file cabinets. The semi-circle went to rabbit room, previously the nursery, now Russ’ home office and the other side extension went downtown to Russ’ corporate office.

The file cabinets, with their three drawers each, remained largely untouched, save the occasional opening to find a large binder clip or a Benjamin Moore paint chip displaying the color we painted the guest room 24 years ago.

Today I decided was the day to start tackling what was inside those rolling drawers. There are six small drawers and three hanging file drawers. I knew I could not do it all at once so I started with three of the small drawers that were filled up with office supplies and miscellaneous items.

I found seven different business cards, three from Durham Magzine because we moved offices often, two from the Food Bank, one from my needlepoint group, and one was personal. There must have been a dozen or more bottles or small containers of pain killers, all at least twenty years old or older. (I think my work life was more stressful back then.)

There were the normal office things, like paper clips and rubber bands that had practically turned to dust and lost their snap. I had six manual pencil sharpeners despite the fact that I have an electric pencil sharpener on top of my desk. There were more used lipsticks, nail files and dental floss that needed to be in my bath room not my desk. And all off this was in one drawer.

The drawer below it was a time capsule of electronics of the 90’s. There were four different tiny film cameras, along with a dozen unused film cartridges. Some weird video camera, my sharp Zarus, which was like a tiny computer, calendar, address book and all things important when I worked in the UK. If I change the batteries I might be able to look at it.

I found at least 75 old credit and membership cards, four from airlines that have long been out of business. Oh, how I miss Midway airlines. There was a checkbook from an account Carter’s name and mine as the trustee from Nations Bank. I don’t even remember Nationa bank, let alone why Carter needed a checking account as a baby. (Sorry Carter I don’t know what money was in that account.)

I did a good job throwing away most everything that was unimportant. I did come across a handful Reporter notebooks from my time working at Durham’s Magazine. I tried not to spend time reading those notebooks, but I did find Jay Bilas’ business card from an event I covered with Coach K. It all went in the trash.

Three drawers was all I could handle today. Tomorrow I will try again on some others. I am dreading the files as I am certain to get bogged down reading things I have not seen in two decades. Throwing away old altoids and white out is easy. Finding letters written to me from people no longer living is going to be harder.

Sorting Paper or Pants

After having my monthly lunch with my friend Hannah, my plan was to work on cleaning up my paper office. I have files in my drawers that have not been cleaned out in 25 years. I am a little curious about what I will find, but not curious enough to stick at if very long.

I started with the top of my desk, covered in financial paperwork to be sorted and possibly discarded. I got through that and a giant much needed storm broke out. No, it was not a tornado of paperwork, but actual rain and thunder.

Shay, standing at the top off the stairs started crying so I abandoned my office and went with her to her safe place, my bed. Well, I thought, there is plenty to be cleaned out in here.

I like to work in categories. So I decided to clean out and organize my folded pants in my closet. I have lost some weight and I have been having trouble finding the pants that are my current size. I have a store’s worth of sizes of almost the exact same pants.

I quickly discovered that most of my pants are too big so it’s time for them to go. I did discover three pairs in three different colors that fit perfectly and I am certain I will wear those three until they get too big. The only sad thing is I did not find any white pants that fit. Stone color will just have to do this summer.

Now I have created a new job, that of rehoming the too big pants. It is way more fun to try on pants that are too big, than sorting through finical paper work. The bottom line is cleaning out is cleaning out. .

One Damn Mosquito

I didn’t sleep well last night. No, I just couldn’t go to sleep last night. I think I finally fell asleep around 3:30. One thing that kept bothering me was a singular mosquito. I could hear it flying around. When I got tired of tossing and turning I would pick up my phone to see what time it was and in the glow of the screen not once, or twice, but three different times the mosquito would come and light on my hand.

Every time it did I would try and kill it, never sure it I got it, until the confirmation the next time I looked at my phone and had the bug come back and visit. It never bit me. Just buzzed around me.

Fast forward to tonight. I come in my room and sit down on my bed and there is my trusty little buzzing buddy back for a visit. I am not certain how this mosquito got in my room. No windows are open, it’s much too hot for that. The closest door to the outside is down a long hall, down five steps and a dog leg turn to the front door.

Maybe this little guy came in riding on Shay. I will never know, but I still have not been able to catch or kill him. I really need sleep tonight. I am praying the bug flys out the way he came in.