No torture. Not ever. Under no circumstance. It is immoral and illegal.
I can’t believe I even have cause to write this.
*****
There is still time to join in the fun with Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out how here: https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/26/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-26th17/
Hmmm….I seem to be indulging my love of parentheses lately.
Warning: I may move on to ellipses next…
Okay, back to the post…
Over the weekend, we went to our wireless store to shop for T’s first smartphone. Given that she is about to head to Missouri to work at a grasslands field research station, she will need GPS and access to databases and such to help with her fieldwork. She also may need it for internet access from the place where she will be living, which does not have broadband available.
They were having a half-price special on an appropriate phone, which the salesperson referred to as buy-one-get-one-free…
So, the next thing I knew, I was getting my first smartphone, too.
It’s quite a step forward in technology for me, given that I was using a flip-phone that was so old the store didn’t have a connector to copy my contacts onto the smartphone. Fortunately, I didn’t have a ton of contacts, although it was tedious to copy them myself. On the other hand, it was a lot easier to type in the names than to push the number buttons the appropriate amount of times for each letter.
It is handy to have E here, as she has had a smartphone for a while and could help me learn how to use my new phone and how to delete or disable apps that came pre-installed, but that I don’t want to bother with. She also taught me important things, like how to silence the ringer.
This probably sounds funny to people who are used to using smartphones and other devices. I realize they are supposed to be intuitive and easy to figure out, but I am not very good at dealing with symbols and swiping and such. I do better with words and manuals with an index that I can read. Of course, those don’t exist any more…
I also don’t use my cell phone as most people do. My landline is still my primary phone number. Very few people have my cell number. I realize that most people want to be connected at all times, but I don’t want anyone bothering me when I am off doing something else. I don’t want a reminder call on my dentist appointment while I am grocery shopping or visiting my parents.
I also don’t text. That may change with T leaving soon for Missouri. I do use g-chat for messaging, so texting is a natural extension of that.
One thing that will be helpful is downloading the apps for some of the stores that I frequent. Recently, our supermarket decided that it would no longer mail out coupons. Having a smartphone will make it easier to download them to my loyalty card.
Who knows? Maybe I will go wild and start taking photos and streaming videos and texting all the time and playing games and such.
Most likely, not…
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out how here: https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/23/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-24th-elusive/
One of the things that poets are expected to do is participate in readings.
As a – let’s call it – late-emerging poet, I have done relatively few readings, so I tend to get nervous when I need to do one.
Like this evening.
Sappho’s Circle, the women’s poetry group convened by Heather Dorn, is going on the road to read at an art gallery in Callicoon, NY, about seventy miles from our home base in Binghamton. The reading will last about an hour and include five members of the Circle.
Because we are reading in an art gallery, I am planning to read some of my ekphrastic poems that came out of my residencies at MASS MoCA, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. These are poems that I am planning to make part of my manuscript under development. I have chosen some of the shorter poems from the MASS MoCA section of the collection, as I feel they will be more accessible when there is no visual component involved.
A bonus is that looking through my poems to choose which to read reminded me that I actually have quite a few poems that have been through revision and that I might be close to making a first draft of the manuscript.
Which is exciting!
And daunting.
Maybe next month, after T is settled in Missouri with her new job and E goes to London to visit L for ten days, I will attempt to print the poems and order them and write a forward and end notes. Then, I can look for holes that need to be filled.
Maybe.
First, I have to get through the reading tonight.
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! It’s easy and fun! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/19/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-19th17/
I’m sure most of us try to do good deeds every day, just as a matter of course, but I had an unusual opportunity present itself today.
I was taking my dad to the store and, as we parked in the (slightly sloped) parking lot, a loaded shopping cart was slowly making its way downhill with no person accompanying it.
I quickly pulled into a parking space, hopped out of the car, and grabbed the cart before it made its way to the edge of the lot.
A new mom had transferred her child from the shopping cart to her minvan, and the cart had rolled away without her noticing it. I was glad that I was able to catch it before it hit anything and return her purchases to her unharmed.
This particular good deed may be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence! But who knows?
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out how here: https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/13/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-13th17/
Yesterday, our church celebrated Epiphany. This is also the day when we usually take down our Christmas tree.
Because this Christmas was somewhat subdued for various reasons, we hadn’t taken any photos.
I did, however, ask B to take the above photo. The carol singers are ones that Grandma, his mom, who passed away in March, had made for us when we were newlyweds to match her own set. B made the church from a kit over thirty years ago. The little Irish church mice are of a similar age.
The barristers and tea cup collection are also inherited from Grandma, with some of the cups originating from prior generations.
The wintry photo is of Main Street in North Adams, Massachusetts and was taken by a shopkeeper sometime in the last decade. We purchased it from him and Grandma displayed it in her cottage at the local retirement village. All four of B’s and my parents came from the North Adams area and he and I grew up near there, too.
It seemed fitting to commemorate Grandma and our family roots in this special corner of our dining room this Christmas.
I expect it to be a new part of our tradition.
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! It’s super fun, easy, and flexible. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/09/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-9th17/
I won’t be sharing my most important jot of the day here because it was a private note.
I logged in to Facebook in the middle of the day to find that a friend from my college years had sent me a friend request! We had not seen each other in over thirty years, so I was very pleased to be back in contact with him.
I immediately accepted the friend request, quickly checked his recent posts on his timeline, and sent him a message – in which I attempted to briefly summarize how my family and I are doing these days.
I managed to restrain myself from asking him to like my blog page, but I don’t mind asking all you Jotters! 😉 If you are so inclined, my page is here. Thanks for putting up with my shameless self-promotion!
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! It’s simple and fun. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/05/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-5th17/
2016 was extraordinarily busy, stressful, and unpredictable. My blog persisted, although with not as many posts as I intended. My blogging practice of reading and commenting fell off a cliff.
I am not a new year’s resolution person. Life has taught and continues to teach me that life is unpredictable and I don’t want to make promises I won’t be able to keep.
Last year, I did manage to post every day for Just Jot It January – January was before the first life-changing event of 2016 struck – so I thought I would at least start in again. Three days so far! But no promises for the whole month, which seems like a long time in the midst of winter.
I am also trying to reclaim a bit of my practice of reading and commenting on other blogs, albeit with no illusions of getting back to visiting dozens of blogs on a daily basis.
I am so thankful for my readers who have visited and commented when I haven’t been able to reciprocate. Your support has kept me blogging, however imperfectly.
I also want to thank Linda, whose One-Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturdays got me posting on some weeks when I didn’t have much time or mental energy to spare. Linda and her blog community rock!
Latest example: Just Jot It January!
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out how here: https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/03/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-3rd17/
This was our first Christmas season without Grandma (my mother-in-law) who passed away in March.
It was also a quiet Christmas for a number of reasons which I won’t enumerate here.
It was sometimes difficult to navigate the season, trying to balance happy memories of how much Grandma loved Christmas, especially decorating, with how painful it was that she wasn’t able to be here with us.
I think each of us had at least one crying jag in the process.
Some things just felt right, though, such as putting the carol singers that she made for us on the cupboard filled with her teacup collection that now sits in our dining room, instead of on the mantel in the living room.
And making her pecan puff recipe.
I am also thankful that last year, our daughter E and her husband L were here celebrating Christmas with us. It was a precious time.
None us knew that that Christmas would be Grandma’s last.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “first/last.” Join us! Find out how here: https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/30/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-3116/
One of the characters in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them says that he knows he is not dreaming because he doesn’t have that good an imagination.
We are all fortunate that Joanne Rowling does have that good an imagination, which she shares with millions of people around the world.
We finally got to see this film, which is based in the travels of British wizard Newt Scamander, this morning and enjoyed it very much.
The visual effects are stunning, especially of the various “fantastic beasts.” Eddie Redmayne embodies Newt and I look forward to seeing him in the follow-on films.
Like most of Rowling’s work, the film deals with universal themes, among them, environmental and endangered species protection, the use and misuse of law and government, social inclusion/exclusion, abuse of power, abuse and neglect of children, and the greater power of love and friendship.
It’s not just a tale of magic.
Some of my faithful readers may have noticed that I have been scarce around here the last few weeks, even given that I have had to cut back significantly on blogging this year due to family commitments. While I have been spending time on family obligations, even more of the time in the last few weeks has been dedicated to re-organizing our house (for reasons that will be elucidated at a later date).
I am the first to admit that I don’t like housecleaning, but this re-organization went way beyond that. There was a lot of going through things, both our own things and things that we had brought to our home after Grandma died this spring. Some things got donated, some got packed and stored in the attic or basement, and some found their way to new places in our home.
Bonus: We freed up the garage so the minivan can stay out of the snow.
The most difficult thing for me, though, was sorting through papers.
Some things were painful or poignant by their very nature. Obituaries. A note from a friend who has since passed away. The fiftieth jubilee mass for a long-time pastor who died this year. Copies of my junior organ recital at Smith, a reminder that I haven’t been able to play the organ for years now, due to orthopedic problems.
Other things caused a more wistful reaction. My daughters’ artwork, starting in preschool and going up through middle school. Some of their report cards and concert programs. Programs and liturgies from our years at Blessed Sacrament, before everything fell apart.
There were some things that had been gathering dust, perched on a high display shelf in our bedroom, that I packed away. My summa cum laude diploma. My Phi Beta Kappa certificate. A certificate naming me a Presser Scholar. All things that I earned thirty-five years ago, when I was quite a good student.
This sounds like I am bragging, but remember these were in our bedroom, not out on the mantel in the living room.
Some may also infer that I am very competitive person, but I am the opposite. My parents raised us to do our own best, without regard to what others were doing. I was fortunate that my best translated into good grades, but my motivation was not gaining honors but learning as much as I could.
Having these mementos was a good reminder for me over the years when I was feeling overwhelmed that I did have a brain in my head that could go to work and research and weigh options and arrive at a useful course of action.
Now, they are in a box in the attic.
I hope that, after thirty-five years of learning, living, and growing, I no longer need a visual reminder.
Joanne Corey 