The Sandcastle

As more and more of us receive our covid-19 vaccines and our society begins to reopen it would be easy to overdo going places and doing things. One of those things may be a shopping trip to your neighborhood mall.

I am a minimalist. I don’t buy things just for the sake of buying things. But, I do sometimes find myself at a mall. Here’s how I changed my thinking about shops to enjoy being there:

Library: every t-shirt shop, greeting card department, and poster/sign store becomes a library. I simply read and enjoy the offerings while being amazed at what other people are willing to show of themselves to the world at large.

Museum: look at the items on display without trying to take any of them home.

Multimedia: enjoy looking at the records and/or films on display.

Memory Lane: pay attention to the memories triggered by what you are seeing and enjoy those.

Playground: at toy stores think about what you would enjoy buying for your kids, grandkids, or yourself.

Self Analysis: Replay all of the above noticing what it says about you. At the Libraries notice what things appeal and wonder why. Do the same thing at the Museums. When viewing Multimedia think about who you were with or what was happening in your life at the time that particular song/film was part of your experience. Are there ways to recreate the good parts without spending money? As you travel down Memory Lane wonder why those particular memories come to mind and what they may be trying to tell you. At Playgrounds, think about what feeling each toy brings to you and think about if there’s some other way you can get that feeling.

No need to spend money to enjoy a trip to the mall.

Except for the gas you spent to get there, of course.

TTYL,

Linda

Sometimes I’m not presented with an entire story. Sometimes it’s just a snippet. Like this one:

 

“Miss Martin, please step into my office.”

“Yes, sir.”

“There’s a woman on her way up here who I need to take our relationship a bit less seriously. So when she comes, i want you to pretend to kiss me.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now.”

Miss Martin threw her arms around his neck and kissed him very seriously indeed.

“She’s gone. You can stop now. It was just supposed to be pretend; not real.”

“So, it felt real to you too”

“Yes. No! I mean…”

“Maybe it’s time you called me Laura?”

 

Oh, dear. Now what?

TTYL,

Linda

For breakfast today I had raisin bread with a chunk of cheddar cheese.

For lunch I had a grilled ham on white bread with Swiss cheese.

For dinner I had a hamburger on an egg bun with a slice of cheddar cheese.

So I had:

• bread and cheese
• bread and cheese and ham
• bread and cheese and hamburger

To break up that pattern a bit I had a slice of tomato with the ham and a pickle spear with the hamburger with a small piece of chocolate for desert.

Think maybe I should have something other than bread and cheese tomorrow?

TTYL,

Linda

(click the picture to enlarge it)

Today is the first day of May and that got me to thinking about previous ones.

As kids we used to go hang small flower baskets on neighbor’s door knobs to celebrate May Day. I was reminded of that today when one showed up on our door.

May poles are also popular but I never saw one in person let alone danced around one winding the ribbons on the pole. I think that would have been fun to do, though.

Mayday! is also a distress call. I wonder how that came to be?

People keep indicating that today is the first day of summer. Having grown up in a camping family in Illinois, I know that Memorial Day Weekend is the beginning of summer. Although the 85° we are having right now may lead some to believe otherwise. 🙂

TTYL,

Linda

And she’s back.

The husband

“I don’t know if you know I was once married.

To a man who said things like:

• I know you always enjoyed dancing but now that we’re married I don’t think you should dance like that anymore.
• Not sure why I married a brunette since I always preferred blondes.
• Do you really think you should eat that?
• Why on earth do you think we should spend my hard earned money on that?
• Look at this dust; do you ever clean around here?
• I can’t believe you never learned to cook a decent meal. Maybe I should have my Mom give you lessons.
• Another baby stillborn? Can’t you even do that right?

It turned out I had done that right. He chose my doctor but it never occured to me that they lied to me about my babies. They were all born alive but promptly whisked away to be sold to couples that couldn’t have their own.

Fortunately, one couple decided the baby he sold to them was defective so they sued him.

At least I got that baby back. And my life.

As to my husband, he committed suicide rather than face life in prison.

At my suggestion.”

TTYL,

Linda