Breathing Underwater

Last night, based on a short, relatively benign comment on a friend's Facebook page, I was labeled as someone suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome." The person who said it doesn't know me at all and to my knowledge, we've never interacted before. Based on what he said, I think he probably creeped on my FB page, and from the precious little I believe he was able to see, I guess he assumed (and, in fact, actually said) that I had to come to this country in order to find a head of state upon whom I could focus my derangement . Erm... (also WTF?) Neither my friend nor I could figure out what on earth he was talking about. My friend told me this person is from the UK but has lived in the US for the past few years. He said this person told him he didn't vote for Trump, nor would he, so his comments (which also referenced cats...?) made even less sense than if he was a die-hard 45 supporter. (It's possible he drinks.) For the record, I do believe &q

It's Writer's Workshop time, so I hopped over to  Mama's Losin' It  to check out the prompts for this week. I decided to go with the first one: What do you miss most about being ten years younger than you are now? What do you miss the least? ____________________ Then as it was, then again it will be And though the course may change sometimes Rivers always reach the sea Blind stars of fortune, each have several rays On the wings of maybe, down in birds of prey Kind of makes me feel sometimes, didn't have to grow But as the eagle leaves the nest, it's got so far to go Changes fill my time, baby, that's alright with me In the midst I think of you, and how it used to be From 'Ten Years Gone' by Led Zeppelin ____________________ While some people keep journals or old diaries or appointment books to enable them to look back to see what they were doing or thinking in the past, I have a blog. It's a pretty cool reso

Almost exactly ten years ago, I did a blog post about defining moments . I explained them as: Those unexpected moments that come from nowhere and hit you like a brick; that alter your life or your perspective and change your course – or steady it; moments you can pass right through without realizing their significance until much later; moments that give you parts of yourself and show you who you are and what you’re made of. I had a defining moment this morning. Actually, I think I had an  epiphany . It wasn't pretty. And I had it while my ass was, literally, hanging out of my bedroom window (I told you it wasn't pretty). Allow me to backtrack for you...  This morning started like every other Saturday. Finn woke me up, ready and raring to go to the park. Since it was raining, I figured the arboretum in the next little town over would be empty, which meant he'd be able to run and I'd be able to get some exercise myself. So I threw on some shoes, yanked a basebal

Last evening, while I was driving home from work, my friend Kim called. When I answered my phone, instead of saying something along the lines of "Hello," or "So you are alive," she said, "Tell me something funny." It was that kind of day. Now, my day wasn't really any better than Kim's, but she's easy to please and she finds most things I say funny. I know this because she has a big, bold laugh and she's always doing it in my ear. Quite frankly, it makes me inordinately happy. And it makes it easy to overlook the fact that she's, you know, laughing at my life . So we chatted and laughed and commiserated and laughed and whined a little and laughed a little more. And then the conversation turned to our children and what they eat at their respective universities. Wait. I should clarify. We talked about what they eat at their respective universities  completely outside of their meal plans . (And to clarify further, my daughter no lo

Somehow Tuesday passed me by and it's nearly Thursday already! I took a quick run over to  Mama's Losin' It  to see what prompts she put up for this week. I decided on the last one (again): Book Review Time! What winter read has you snuggled in and turning pages? Well...  As you may or may not recall, I decided to let go of Facebook (et al) and Netflix (et al) in order to attempt to live a bit more deliberately . See, they were taking up so much of my time that I was getting absolutely nothing accomplished (with the exception of feeding the animals [it seems they need to eat every day ! Who knew?], cleaning the litter boxes [because ew], and the occasional load of laundry [so I didn't have to wear my bathing suit under my pajamas to work]). My addiction to social media and just plain old media was all-consuming and, if I'm honest, a bit mindless.  So, on January 2nd, they went bye-bye.  Sniff. And since January 2nd, I have read... 24 books, y

Hiya, peeps! I just wanted to ask a favor... For those of you who have subscribed to my blog, I realize Feedburner is now delivering the entire  post to your email, rather than just the link to the post. While this is convenient, I know, it kind of messes up my tracking numbers. Sigh. Nothing is ever easy. Anyway, if you could actually click and go to the blog, I'd so appreciate it! And if you'd like to leave a comment, that would be swell!! But if you comment as 'Anonymous,' please give me a hint as to who you are! I love me some comments but I love to know who they're coming from even more! Also, just a reminder about my Arctic Dip fundraiser... if you'd like to donate but need the link to my page, just email me. If you don't have my email address, shoot me a message at dhd2581@yahoo.com and and I'll send it to you. Thanks ever so much!!! XO,

When I started blogging, about a dozen years ago (on  my old blog ), I had the great good fortune to stumble across one of the best, funniest bloggers with one of the best, funniest blogs around...  Mama's Losin' It . Every Tuesday, Mama Kat would publish a list of writing prompts and bloggers from far and wide would pick one, write a post, and then link it on her site on Thursday. It was cool.  And in the heyday of blogging, back before everything was about advertising and selling stuff - when Blogland was a real community - we'd all read each other's posts and comment on them and just generally be nice and encouraging. I made loads of friends that way (friends, I might add, with whom I've stayed in contact and even visited in person [even crossed the Atlantic to meet!]). It was way cool.  And I wrote many, many posts from Kat's weekly prompts. Alas, things changed. Blogging changed. Facebook took over and Blogland became a place that I only droppe

This morning I went to a wedding. It was a dream. And I don't mean it was dreamy , as in, lovely people, floaty dresses, fragrant flowers, etc. I mean, it was a dream - a literal dream.  I'm not sure if it was because I had it so close to waking, but it seemed real; it made sense (as opposed to being all disjointed, with one thing or person turning into another). First, I was with my family - my brothers, my sisters-in-law, and my mother (who died 18 months ago). Strangely, my daughter and niece weren't there. It was the wedding of the cousin of a childhood family friend and we didn't know the bride or groom. We were invited because, although the wedding was taking place in New Jersey (I think), it was a Scottish wedding  (indeed, the family friend is Scottish as well). The wedding itself was bizarre. And there was nothing Scottish  about it - no bagpipes, no kilts, not even a charming highland brogue. It was more of a redneck wedding - the sort that would