Jun13

Day Ten: A Sweet Sixteen Birthday In My Backyard?

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Ramblings of  a sixteen year old on her  birthday!

Today is my sixteenth birthday, and I know something good is going to happen, after all I’m sixteen now!!!  There is definitely a hush over the entire household because no one is saying a word.

I’m starting to get excited, could Mom be planning a party for me?   If she is, and doesn’t tell me, I could be caught totally off guard!   And yet, a surprise party would be fun….are there really any surprises…of course she’s would be planning a party for me…I’m  Sixteen Today!

Don’t they know I’m old enough to know what’s going on… better get ready, well you know…anything could happen…after all I’m sixteen now….

Late morning …

It’s been  really stressful so far,  just hanging around, listening to some of my favorite records. Mother is starting to clean up the patio, and set the table for four people.  Strange, why only four?  …  I think I need to do my hair, and get dressed…I need to look my best!

 I am at my dressing table making myself gorgeous…just in case

When I pranced out of my room dressed, with my hair done to perfection…….the patio had been decorated with pink, and white crate paper all around the gables, and down the pillars.  The table was set with all pink and white flowers, with Mom’s best china, and paper cups.  Paper cups…what’s with that?  Aren’t I worth putting the crystal out for?  How could she treat me like this?  Another time she just clearly doesn’t care about me!

Soon…three of my best friends are at the front door. Check it out…there is Charlene, Sandy, and Bonny..but they aren’t dressed up.   They should have dressed as if this were the special occasion that it is!  After all this is my birthday party.. and I am sixteen now!  Also, the presents weren’t very big…what’s with that?  Aren’t I good enough for bigger presents?

Meanwhile…

I feeling kind of , well…..sick!  My stomach is starting to churn, and I feel dizzy.  This isn’t good!  Not good at all!!!  I’m trying not to show how I feel, but I think I’m getting pale, might just really… throw up!  CRAP…CRAP CRAP CRAP!  What did I do to deserve this?  The girls are changing into their bathing suits, and I’m stuck here on the patio.  I don’t dare move around or I will hurl.

My friends are splashing around, swimming, laughing, and playing tag in our pool without me, and I’m stuck here, on the patio, on the chaise….sick…ready to splat Cheerios and milk all over everything!

Mother is starting to  put food on the table, it looks so yummy.  How fair is this?  The chips and dip are already out – which I love, but now..finger sandwiches, potato salad, and Petit fours….OhMyGod!   I love potato salad…. I love chips and dip too, actually I love food!  All food, any food you can think of, I love it all.  Except maybe lima beans, I don’t love lima beans.  I really hate lima beans!  Mother always tries to serve lima bean casserole during lent, and I always gag.  Once I told her they tasted like SHIT,  wow that went over well!  I really thought I would lose my life over that comment, but I’m still here!  After all I was being honest, and they always told me honesty is the best policy!  I guess…not when it comes to lima beans though.  Anyway, I’m now realizing that even though all this food looks really good, if I take even one bite, I’ll lose it!

The party went on without me because I was so excited I had made myself sick.  I never sat at the table, I don’t even remember opening my presents although I know I must have.  The food never hit my mouth, and my entire party was horrible.  I spent the whole day on the chaise lounge watching everyone else have fun, while I gaged down vomit.  After everyone left, the table was cleared, the decorations disappeared, and everyone went about their normal routine….. miraculously….. I recovered.

And that my friends, is the story of my perfectly wonderful, devastatingly horrible Sweet Sixteen Birthday Party!

 

PS:  As I sat to do research looking for the tunes of the late fifties that all of us listened to, at least where I lived in the suburbs of Los Angeles, they brought a smile to my face just remembering those early days.  I use to tell everyone I was an original Valley Girl until I realized that made me older than dirt!  So now, I’m just a Valley Girl, and that made me somewhat as old as dirt!   Don’t you just love YouTube, there isn’t  anything, you can’t find on YouTube, and I thank them for all the wonderful stuff.   I hope you enjoy.

Jun13

Day Nine: A Day in the Park

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Day Nine: A Day in the Park

The sky is blue, not a cloud around, a soft breeze is teasing the leaves on the trees like a feather on bare skin.  There couldn’t be a more perfect day!

Hello, my name is Bleau, and I’m the Blue Bird of Happiness!  I fly from tree to tree, lawn to lawn foraging for worms, and little bugs.  All is well in my world today, my family has been fed, the wife and little peeps are taking their naps, and you can tell I’m happy by the way I chirp.

Meanwhile…

On a branch off to the side,  in the back way…out-of-the-way in a rather shaded quiet place, is an old dark furry caterpillar.

“Humph!”  Says this furry creature.  “This is hopeless, why do I even try?  I’m definitely not feeling it today!  It’s cold, windy, dreary, noisy, cloudy, and gray.  I haven’t any friends, absolutely no energy, my mind is foggy, I need a facelift, I could use a new lipstick, and the only thing I get called is, Yuck!  What’s the point of living?”  gag gag gag

Well Hello there…..

Some people call me Flutterby because, well…I flutter by!  I’m a very large, and most beautiful Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.  I love nothing more than a warm sunny day in the park, where all around me are wonderful places to sit, and rest.  There is even a pond in this park for me to drink from and shade for me to get out of the sun if I need to.  When it gets really hot like today, without any breeze, it makes it hard to flutter around.  I need to rest in the shade, and drink from the pond more frequently.

A Most Beautiful Tiger Swallowtail!

A Most Beautiful Tiger Swallowtail!

Many times the children want to play games with me, so I fly around while the children chase me with nets.  They laugh, and scream with excitement, while I dodge, and dart all around the lawn.  They think I’m the most beautiful  girlie butterfly they have ever seen!

So far….I have won the game!

Jun11

Day Eight: On A Path…..without adverbs!

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Cheryl & Karen

This is my first photo transfer of my sister and I on a path…  I searched my photos to find everything I needed for this project, and I like how it turned out.

This path is  as you can see….without adverbs!  Or I should say, can you find any adverbs?

Jun10

Day Seven: Is Patience A Lifelong Lesson?

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Day Seven: Is Patience A Lifelong Lesson?

YES!

For me I think it is!  Just when I think I’m a kind, loving, patient person I’m pushed  to the edge, and I lose it, taking away my self respect!    Are all of us like this, or am I one of the chosen few that constantly has to work on being patient?  I do so well for several days…. then….I  can’t help myself.  When I am patient, kind, and understanding, I feel like I’m giving myself a gift!

Is being tired something that takes away patience, or is it just plain old being ornery?  One can only guess.  Each and every day I have to remind myself to take a breath and be patient!

 

 

Jun10

Going Back…

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Going Back…

This afternoon as I was thinking about writing a post, and most definitely struggling with content.  As I reread some of my old posts,  I was stunned to realize that I had actually written them.  The content was familiar, and I could feel the words, but I couldn’t believe I wrote them.

On one post, I wrote about our trip to the Island of Kauai, and on another the day we picked up my son, Dennis from the airport after he made his first CD.

So whats your point?

I sitting here wondering if my writing is getting better, or worse?  Just like the paintings I create.  If you go back and revisit old works of art, often it is unbelievable  to think you had created them in the first place.  They aren’t all great, some of them I can actually believe it was me who painted them.  That’s painful to admit!

 Who did those, it couldn’t have been me!

But in fact it was me, in both cases.  When I write I pour my heart out just like when I paint!  It may be good at the time, or a struggle at that time, it depends.    Sometimes we don’t even realize how much of an effort it is until it unfolds.

Art is different for me because when I struggle,  I always know it!  It’s great when it flows, but that doesn’t always happen.  Sometimes I struggle painfully with something, a concept, a start, or maybe even more than that!

The Abstract Dancer has already taken two or three sharp left turns.  I have ideas, and who knows if they will work, but it’s better to try something than nothing!  Right? By posting this online, maybe it will shake me loose, and drive me to work on it!  I’m trying to avoid doing the Jackson Pollock thing to it.

At least that is my hope.  So someday when I look back on prior posts, I can look at this one and remember how I was struggling to pull it all together, and make Abstract Dancer a real painting!  Someday maybe I can read this post, and say to myself,  I did pull it together, and that Abstract Dancer is exactly what I had envisioned!