Christmas is Shaping Up

I love Craigslist. I was looking on freebies a couple nights ago and found an ad had appeared for a big box of crochet thread. I love working with thread but was running low. I pounced on the box of yarn and thread! And the lady was so sweet. She made me a beautiful Christmas centerpiece of cedar, holly, a white candle and big red and gold bow. She also gave me an adjustable desk/table that she'd gotten for her father when he lived with them before he passed away.

Last week my wonderfulness from Craigslist was a big box of goodies I won't mention because they're going to be Christmas gifts and I know my grandkids know about this blog. Far be it from me to blow the secret. Sorry kids. The girls and their fiances are going to come to visit the day after Christmas if they can so we'll get to open presents together. If they can't make it, I'll just ship the gifts down to them by UPS. I like those late presents that show up around Christmas. It always makes the holiday seem to last longer. And the girls and I, while they were teenagers still living at home, made the decision to do our Christmas late so we could take advantage of the big after-Christmas sales, so 

It really amazes me how things work. I've been wishing I could make spa washcloths but I didn't have any of the worsted weight cotton yarn. When the big box of thread and yarn arrived, there was the right kind of yarn for the spa washcloths I want to make! My daughter Crys has been needing a warm scarf since it's really, really cold outside. There's just enough worsted weight yarn for a scarf for her scarf. I've made about a third of it while watching television tonight. And I've still got bunches and bunches of various weights of thread to make pretty things out of throughout the coming year. I want to have enough stuff for a table at next fall's holiday market since I didn't have enough done for this first one just passed. Now I have a lot of size 20, 30, 50 and even 100 weight. The 100 weight is like thin sewing thread because the higher the number, the thinner the thread.

I'm watching a nature show on this beautiful big TV I got from a really nice couple I found on Craigslist. It's "old school" flat screen. I see so many of the newer flat screens on there that say the  newTV is broken, so I really prefer this monstrosity. It has a wonderful HD picture and I love watching nature and travel shows. I wish my laptop had a screen like that. I love to watch travel shows on Youtube before I go to sleep at night. I didn't have anything suitable to sit the TV on so they even brought me the chest of drawers they'd bought to use as a /TV stand when this TV was new.

So this is how my Christmas is shaping up for this year. I get to give some honest-to-goodness "bought with money" gifts instead of just handmade things like I always make.I know handmade gifts are wonderful, but for kids who aren't blessed with parents who can afford the latest big "deal", things that are homemade are disappointing. I raised all six kids with good values about what's really important in life and all that, but every kid deserves to be able to dream they might get the latest thing all their friends have gotten because sometimes they really do. All the kids are grown up now, but it hurt my heart when they were small and Santa didn't bring anything truly stupendous. I'm not able to give stupendous wonderfulness in the area of gifts, but my heart feels good that this year, I can give some things I didn't make along with the ones I did make.

Politics and Medicare .

I've moved to Washington from Oregon and it's been nothing but a mess medically. First I couldn't see my doctor because I need a Washington medical card. My prescriptions were filled with no problem at that time.

Then when I got the Washington medical coverage, now my part D shows the pharmacy as not covering me according to the pharmacy. It's been days and days that I've tried to remedy the problem. Today I spent literally hours on hold while calling one number who would only refer me to another government or state agency, around and around and around. Pass the buck. In the meantime I can't get my medications for blood pressure and my other medical conditions---they're sitting on the shelf at the pharmacy waiting for me to BUY them with money I don't have. It's just ridiculous. The card they asked for is the one I gave them but they've rejected it but it's valid and nobody seems to know where the problem is. If I ever needed my blood pressure medication, I certainly do at this point but I can't afford it unless we can get it filled with my coverage so that I only have to do co-pays of about $1 each.

And then when I try to watch TV, the only coverage seems to be the Chump. We need to dump the Chump and get on with some sane stuff. His methods are exactly like an abusive person handles people. He spouts bigotry and then when called on it, he say's "oh no, you've gotten it all wrong. I'm not bigoted at all, I'm the least bigoted person you'll ever meet".  He's playing the public who are stupid enough to be cheering for the Naked Emperor, while the Naked Emperor swings his inadequate little naughty bits in full sight of the world. He so obviously considers his followers to be gullible, ignorant , ineffective little minions who will buy whatever he's trying to sell them without realizing that his baseball hat just looks stupid on him, which he knows, but he's playing to this ignorant group by making them think he's just a good ol' boy like they are who can play tough and make everything right. Everything he's presented has been just garbage that would only cause the country even more problems but his followers lap it up but on and on he goes.

I just saw a news clip where an eagle tried to bite him when he was doing an interview. That made my day. What more needs to be said?  Even the national symbol, the bald eagle, doesn't like him. The eagle has more sense than followers of this chump, evidently.

On the other side of it, maybe the big crowds cheering this guy are just spoofing him and egging him on to see just what lengths he'll go to. They may mostly have no intention of voting. They're just enjoying the show. We can certainly hope that's it for lots of them. No sane thinking person would ever want him to be the Commander in Chief. We'd all be doomed. But at least if he's the nominee the Republicans choose, we can be sure Hilary will be a shoe-in.

I also have a question. If Obama has been mistrusted because his father was Muslim in Africa, then what about Ted Cruz? His father is Cuban and Cuba has been under US sanctions for most of the last 50 or so years. Why is Ted Cruz not ostracized right along with Obama?

Just Thinking about Christmas

This year most of my family isn't going to be here with me for Christmas. They're back in Oregon and with all the rain from the "pineapple express", we'd need to build an ark to get there. I've been feeling twinges of homesickness the closer it gets to Christmas. My youngest daughter and her sweetie are here in Washington so I'm going to cook dinner for them for the holiday. Once I got the two little grandchildren to raise, my energy didn't cover being the mom who does big family dinners after the kids are grown. Having just come back from a lupus crash, then becoming caregiver to two babies, my energy just didn't cover big family dinners. My oldest daughter stepped up and started doing the family dinner thing but she's in Oregon. I'm gonna miss her holiday dinners and especially the way she makes brussels sprouts with bacon.

I didn't bring any Christmas decorations with me when I moved here from Oregon. Who can be thinking of Christmas when it's 100 degrees every day and stays at nearly 70 degrees even after dark? We had to move me in the wee hours of the morning just to get through it. Every one of us was so bedraggled and exhausted from the heat that Christmas was the very last thing on my mind. My grand-daughter Sadie came along to help me get settled. She and I both just opened the windows of the apartment and went to sleep in spite of the sea gulls causing a ruckus outside.

I only have $19 left to stretch for the rest of the month, so I guess I'll be hitting the Dollar Tree for some decorations. I think $5 and a lot of imagination will work. I have to go to the doctor for some lab work tomorrow and then grocery shopping. It's been raining cats and dogs for days and days now. The town of Olympia reminds me of San Francisco or Hood River or Oregon City because it's  built on hills. It also reminds me a little bit of Carmel, a little hobbit town with all the twisty little windy streets. I live at the bottom of the hills, so water is going to tend to all end up down here where I live. The port is only a block away. I should go have a look to see where the water level is.

Speaking of seagulls----the window washers came last week and washed the seagull poop off our windows. The forestry people or somebody came earlier in the fall and moved all the seagulls off to somewhere else so I don't hear them anymore, They were nesting on the roof and it was so bad that they said the seagull poop was running down the walls on the outside of the building. They had to put a new roof on both buildings. I realize the gulls were a big problem but I still miss hearing and seeing big flocks of them. I do see and hear an occasional one but not very often or very loudly and in spite of wind storms,  there's no more  gull poop on my windows. Yet.

Happy Holiday and Happy Birthday to Me

Murah!!!

On the 26th I had a birthday. I'm 70 years old now. My family brought me a cake and a poinsetta, a pretty picture and my great-grandson Gabriel  blew me kisses. He was outside playing and rolling around on the ground. He's four years old now and I miss him so much. I can't wait to see him again. I was there when this little guy was born and he was like the Hanged Man. One of his ankles was wrapped twice with the umbilical cord.

Gabriel's first word was "book" and he loves books so I'm building a nice library of classics to leave to him. They're mostly Leatherbound Classics from Amazon and Library of America books. I have 30+ volumes now and will continue to add to the library. I get them from used sellers if they're in good shape for rock bottom bargains and if I can't find a bargain I order new.

Gabriel's Mom is a writer like me.  Her first book is going to be published soon. I can't wait to see it. It's illustrated using photos of herself as a fairy. It's an adult fantasy, I think.

Blowin' kisses to Granny

 I never thought I'd live this long, so I'm very thankful that I've made it this far. I'd really like to see 100 years old and I did have a great uncle who lived to be over 100 and most of my relatives live into their 90's on both sides of my family.

Thank you, Gabe! Granny loves you to the moon and back for a million years

Gabriel is such a wonderful little boy. He named my daughter, his grandmother, Bop. He's always called her that. She's a musician and he's loved music since probably even before his birth because McKenzie would take her headphones and put them on her belly before he was born and play music she liked for him. She didn't get so into teenage-y music exclusively and played different kinds of music for him that way. For his 3rd birthday, Bop gave him a for-real blues harmonica. When he got home with it, he hid it somewhere and nobody knows where. He takes it out and plays it when he wants to but then it disappears again. I guess it's his special thing just for him, to his way of thinking. Or else he was playing it and somebody put it up just to get peace and quiet and he didn't want that to happen again so he decided to hide it. We have a cute little bit of video of Gabe playing guitar with Bop. I have a feeling he's going to be a musician himself as he gets older.

Now I'm getting some beadwork done for some orders I have and then I'm also making some jewelry that I can give as gifts and post here on a page I'm calling Jewels and Jeans boutique. My creations will be beaded denim with lace crocheted by me. Tarot cases, purses, book covers, jewelry, hatbands, guitar straps, belts, and much more. By this time next year, there will be pages and pages of stuff I've made that can either just be browsed through or bought.

Below are my cake and my poinsetta sitting on my old elephant. Off to bed for me now.

My luscious cake.

I

My poinsetta plant.

Time for Thankfulness

Today I'm 70 years old. I'm very, very thankful for that. A counselor I was seeing when I was 40 said she was amazed I hadn't been a teen suicide. But that was 30 years ago. Now I'm sober for 30 years and a few months, which is something I'm extremely grateful for as well. My last drink was on May 5th of 1985.

I'm extremely thankful for my beautiful little apartment. It's giving me so much joy. As you've probably read in previous posts, I've furnished my little place through items from craigslist and for that I'm extremely grateful, too. It's very cozy and I have everything I could possibly need and then some.

I'm thankful for my family and the fine people they've become. At times I think they became that in spite of me. Even in my drinking days, my heart belonged to my kids and still does. And to my grandkids, too. I've always wanted for them what I didn't have, but not in the material sense. I always tried to provide for them the best I could, even though sometimes that wasn't very good. But I always tried to give them good values, a humor that would get them through tough times, consideration for others, and lots of love they knew I had for them.

I'm thankful for all my friends at Aeclectic Tarot forum where I've been a member for about 10 years or so. I've learned so much there. In my opinion, it's the world's greatest resource for learning divination of all kinds. It's a peaceful, respectful discussion forum with moderators who work hard to keep it that way without appearing to rule with an iron hand. The skill level of members ranges from those who aren't familiar with divination at all to scholars with decades if experience and vast knowledge.

I just became the new editor of our apartment complex newsletter, the Sand Pebble. I saw the "wanted" sign for a few weeks, always deciding to just see if anyone else would take it. They didn't so I finally caved. I'm happy and excited about it. I've always been a writer so heaven knows there wasn't any reason not to volunteer for the job. It will get me out and about and not so much of a hermit like I tend to be. This is definitely something new to be thankful about.

I'm extremely thankful for my little Gypsy, who is such good company and so much fun. She's so tiny that she's got some little cat toys because most regular dog toys are bigger than she is. She won't get any bigger. She's 18 months old and has now started putting on some weight. She has a little teddy bear that squeaks and she seems to think it's her baby or something since it makes a little noise. If I accidentally step on "the baby" she runs and hides it in the bed or somewhere. If I walk by it, she moves it out of my way. Every night she brings it to bed. When I say, "Okay, time for nite nite"and go to the bedroom, she goes and finds the little bear and brings it onto the bed. She's also got a tiny little stuffed Minnie Mouse that she always wants me to play catch with her with. I throw it and she always brings it back. I never taught her that. She just did it on her own. Awhile back I got her a little toy with a long body and I guess that one is the "red-headed step-child" because she just beats the heck out of it, shaking it and chewing it. She doesn't want me to throw "the baby" most of the time. If she loses Minnie for awhile and gets desperate for a game of catch, she'll break down finally and have me throw Baby a time or two, but mostly it's Minnie.

In general, I'm just thankful for everything in my life today. Even for the challenges. There are always difficulties in life, some of them very serious, but they can help to mold us into a stronger and more caring, contented person if we just do our best to understand that we're the ones who bring whatever our lives contain for better or worse in a high percentage of instances. If what we're becoming isn't good, we can change our ways and go in a better direction. As Maya Angelou said, "We do the best we can. When we know better, we do better." I believe that's true of myself and everyone around me. That doesn't mean I can excuse and condone inequality, cruelty, or crime. It just means I don't try to change anyone but me and I detour around people and situations that would drag me backwards in my own journey through life. I don't put them down or take the posture that I'm better or more enlightened than they are. I just detour with compassion, knowing they haven't gone in a direction that will make their lives fulfilling and peaceful.yet.

OK So I'm a Late Bloomer. Better Late than Nipped in the Bud from the Gate

After seeing a sign on the manager's office door for several weeks saying there was a need for a new editor for the Sand Pebble, which is the newsletter for the Boardwalk complex of senior apartments, I finally gave in and said I'd take the job. My first thought was "Meh, I've worked all my life. This sounds like work. I don't think I'll volunteer" but every time I went downstairs, there was that same old flyer, saying they needed an editor.

I decided it would be good for me to take the job because it will get me out of the apartment and doing things that could be really enjoyable. There are many, many activities and trips offered, for one thing, and I haven't joined into any of them since I moved here in August. I have a good phone with a great camera in it, so taking photos of the activities and trips will be no problem and if it's something I can't take Gypsy along on, my daughter will come "babysit" her. I couldn't find any really good excuse to justify continuing to NOT take the job.

The retiring editor spent some time this afternoon filling me in on what I'll need to know and gave me some pointers when she dropped off the files. all of which I appreciate very much. Now I'll be cruising Craigslist again to find a free file cabinet. I have a drawer I'm keeping the files in for now, but a file cabinet, or at the very least a file box, will be a lot more efficient than just a bunch of file folders and clippings floating around in a drawer.

Now I'm looking for some good free word processing type software that will be easy to lay out the pages and photos with. Back when I edited the entertainment magazine, we had to use a typewriter and graph paper, cutting out the copy in pieces and actually pasting it onto a big sheet of graph paper and pasting the photos into the places by hand. This will be so much easier if I can find the right computer software. If anyone who reads this blog knows of good free software, I hope they'll leave me a comment to let me know.

Craigslist is an Amazing Resource

Today I met some beautiful people who brought me a nice great big TV and a stand to hold it. I noticed an ad on craigslist where someone was offering a big old style flat screen TV and because it was so big, they offered the stand for it, too. They were offering it and said that if the person needed it to be brought to them they'd bring it and set it up. So that's what happened. I answered their ad and now I have a very beautiful, big TV and I don't have to try to see the very small screen I had till now. They're the nicest people and I'm very touched.

The people who put the desk I now have on craigslist also brought it to me and set it up for me and then went back home and brought me a computer chair, a set of pretty canisters and a pretty holiday cake plate too. Here's the beautiful desk I have now. It holds the library I've been building for my great-grandson, my Tarot books and journals as well as being where I can use my laptop and do beadwork. This wasn't free. I paid $50 for the desk.


This shows part of it but the photo below shows the top of the desk hutch where the big Hotei, guardian spirit of fortunetellers sits. The desk is 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It's wonderful, It's been very well taken care of and I l love it. My apartment is small, but I don't have anything to put on the walls, so I think this adds interest, functionality and is just the right choice for me.



On Monday the newsletter stuff will be handed over to me. I've accepted the job of editor of the Boardwalk newsletter, called the Sand Pebble. I'm so excited. I tend to be a hermit so this job will be a good way to get me out and about and I know I'm going to just love doing it. It's a volunteer position but that's not a problem for me. They provide the publishing, so it's not an expense for me. All I have to do is go out and get the news and pictures and then do the writing and layout.

My bed was another craigslist find and so is my couch. Craigslist is really a wonderful resource, even though it can sometimes be frustrating if the people offering the items don't respond to answers to their ads. Cory and Crys gave me a little bookcase and side table for my bedroom, so that's covered.. My bedroom is very small so there's isn't room for a lot in there but I have a twin bed which is all I prefer to have anyway, so it's plenty spacious for what I need.

This is my beautiful big TV and the stand the people donated to put it on.. The other TV I had was so small and old that when there were captions at the bottom of the screen, it cut them off and I couldn't always read them. My little kitchen is kind of cluttered in the background, but I wasn't thinking about that when I took the photo.

I now have to rearrange my living room to make it function better, but the only thing I now need to find is a small table and chairs. It will need to be just a very small sort of bistro table but considering that craigslist has furnished my little abode so far, I'm sure my table is going to be on offer before long, too.

Tomorrow I'm going to take more pictures to post here. Other people have such cute little alcove decorations in front of their doors that I'm going to keep my eyes open to find a way to make my own little decorations.

This is enough for now. Crys is going to be staying with me a couple days for Thanksgiving since it's my birthday that day and she's going to help me work more on the blog so I can learn how to keep expanding it and making it nice.

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