A blessing

My daughter's at "that" age. She's a tween. She just experienced that first of firsts....the first period.
I was lucky in that my Mom told me what to expect but more importantly made it seem like a good thing. I have friends who've made their daughters cry when they discussed menstruation...crying out " I don't want to get older!".
I always knew I wanted to do something "special" for Claire when the big day came. I told her we'd go out for lunch, and go shopping for something special to mark the event.
When the day did arrive I was talking to a friend of mine about it and she asked if I'd like to hear the Wiccan "First Blood Blessing". I told her of course and here it is.....
You're supposed to read it out loud in a forest or something but I just wrote it out and gave to to Claire in the car on the way to Sushi!!
Be free, be strong, be yourself, be lucky, be proud to be a woman, be loved and be loving.
May your body always be a blessing to you, a temple of love and pleasure.
May your womb bear fruit at your desire.
May you always remember that your power to create is of the body, but not bound by the body.
May you bear many different kinds of fruit.
Honor your blood that waxes and wanes with the moon, for it is the living presence of the Goddess.
May your blood flow gently, without pain, reminding you that within you lies the circle of birth, growth, death and rebirth.
Yours is the power to open or close the gates of life, and yours is the responsibility to be a conscious guardian.
Open to the embrace of love when you choose, and when you do not choose, may you be inviolable.
Care for you body as you would for a sacred grove, and care for those you love.
May your life be rich with many forms of love: passion, affection, devotion, compassion, humor and playfulness, wild adventures and a safe hearth to come home to.
May you find lovers, partners, friends and companions those who will nurture you and those whom you will nurture.
Know that you are unique and precious, that no one else can take your place.
Be Blessed.
So she read it, blushed, said " Thank You Mommy" and we pigged out on Sushi and shopped til we dropped!1
She keeps the note in her "special keepsake box".

Food , glorious food

My friend Mika just "tagged" me in something called a food meme. I don't know what a meme is, and I'm not very computor savvy so I'm going to break some of the rules but I'll do it anyway!

The rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules ( right off the bat I break a rule...I don't know how to "link")

2. Share 5 food facts about yourself

3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names ( linking to them....Linking again!!)

4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Here's my lame way of linking....Mika http://mika-ryan.blogspot.com/ sent me this and I'm determined to do it my way!!!!

1. My mom did "fusion" before it was even a word in culinary circles. Yup, I was raised on a Canadian/British fusion of VERY well done meat, VERY boiled vegetables served with a heaping side of boiled, mashed potatoes or minute rice. She also put different foods together in what we now call a fusion but back then it was called a casserole. Tuna, rice and Miracle Whip or macaroni, hambuger and tomatoe soup ( a favorite of all the grandkids ....they beg her for it!).

2. My relationship with food morphed somewhat through my teenage years and into young adulthood. I had an eating disorder. Food was eaten for all the wrong reasons, not tasted, not appreciated, loved and hated at the same time. It became an obsession and all consuming. Not good food years.

3. I now have a normal healthy relationship with food. Let's face it, the casting director for the next Sex in the City is not going to come to Edmonton in the near future looking for that perfect 46 yr old mother of two to replace Sarah Jessica Parker!! I'm not paid to be skinny!! I enjoy food!!

4. My roommate through nursing school was in the restaurant business prior to nursing. She changed me. She taught me about cooking, ( not to say we didn't enjoy our Kraft dinner or crunchy peanut butter by the spoon!). Lois exposed me to ethnic food, fine cuisine, fine wines, the art of dining slowly for hours at a noisey artsy restaurant, cooking from scratch! Thank you Lois!!

5. Having kids kinda changes things a bit. My 11 yr old is a whiz in the kitchen and will try , and usually likes most foods. She did all my Christmas baking and she can cook up a storm. My 9 year old is another story. I don't really know how to describe it....only raw veggies, no sauce ( including ketchup! What kid doesn't like ketchup?!!) , he does the "gross shiver gag thingy" if there's ANY skin or fat on his meat, hates fish ( although LOVES calamari...and even knows it's squid!), no spice ( therefore no flavor). Anyhoo, our family meals are kinda boring ( maybe why mom cooked how she cooked......3 kids with different tastes!). I know it'll change and we can all sit down to a good Pad Thai in a few years.

So for my tagging I break the rules too. I don't know 5 other bloggers! My friends are facebookers so I'll only do a couple......and again I have to do the lame way of linking......

I tag my sister Judith http://judes-journey.blogspot.com she was raised on Minute Rice too!

I tag Maggy and Me author http://maggyandme.blogspot.com she's a friend of Mika and I read her blog and enjoy it.

Now I'm going to try to get some of my friends on facebook to get into this blogging thing. I mean really....there's no "meat" to facebook, no stories, no debates, nothing to really "chew" on...it's a little like Minute Rice.....

Sensitive Issues

There's a really good blog I love to read. It's called Life with Mika....check it out at http://www.mika-ryan.blogspot.com. I met Mika about 12 years ago in Vancouver through my sister. I liked Mika right away. She's funny, liberal, open-minded, adventurous, just a neat person to be around.
Mika was born in Texas USA and came to Vancouver Canada many years ago. Mika's family still lives in Texas and through her blog she can keep them up to date on her comings and goings. Her son lives in Thailand and because of her blog she can still be a Mom in touch with her son, imparting her motherly words of wisdom and letting him know via this medium that she's still cool and in touch with what's going on in the world.
Lately the blog has been "interesting".
As I mentioned before Mika was born in Texas, .......I've been to Texas. I went to Dallas 2 years ago for a Mary Kay thingy and whoo-eee I've never been preyed, I mean prayed for, so much in my life!!!!
We're talking about the land of Bush and right wing Christian conservatism and well...I was sitting at a table with about 7 Texan gals and I was made to hold hands while grace was said and the talk ( they started it!!) came to religions and I guess I made the mistake of mentioning , respectfully, that I question the whole male sky god thing and that perhaps we're all accountable and can't ask said male sky God to fix our mistakes and everything and well......if there is a male sky God I've got it made in the shade because they prayed....are still praying for me......(oh and they're praying for my gay opera friend who got married to his partner legally in Edmonton the week before too). ( word of advise....when in Texas don't mention the power of the Universe, gays and liberals)!!! They were great gals, and I know they liked me and wanted what they thought was the best for me....I guess.......

Anyhoo, Mika is honest and open minded about her beliefs, and tells it like it is in her blog and well.......her last post mentioned politics ( she's liberal minded) and a family member( I'll call Ms T) made a comment on Mika's blog that got all preachy and lecturey and I kinda lost it.......
You see Ms T has been irking me for awhile and I've tried to be all light and funny and "Oh well" about her in the past but the last one just got me!!! Something about " why Canadians even care about who gets elected President of the US!!! Her past comments on Mika's blogs about topics on.....
gays ( apparantly wrong, wrong, wrong......but with the "right" religious beliefs gayness can be fixed!) ,
religion ( Christian conservative),
immigrants ( free loaders),
health care ( you got the cash you get the care),
those in need of social assistance( those people from New Orleans should stop expecting the Govn't to bail them out),
I'd usually comment in some offhand way but the last one irked me alot! Why do we Canadians care? Because we're global citizens!!! Because your President Bush is wrecking it for everyone in the playground we call "the world"!!!

I commented quite strongly. I Bush bashed, and said some other stuff and I think I insulted Ms T and maybe got Mika into some trouble with her family.
Mika, I'm sorry if I offended your family.....I'll try to play better in your sandbox next time!

Slippery Slope to Sweats and Greasy Hair

I'm sooo confused! As I mentioned before I'm a telehealth nurse....I provide medical advise and info over the phone. Right now I work downtown, on the 5th floor overlooking the river valley. It's bright and aery and across the street from a Starbucks. Need I say more!
We've been notified that a new pilot project is starting in a couple of weeks.....the chance to work from home.
No parking issues or should I say parking tickets issued.
No commute in a snow storm, no worries that after 8 hrs parked outside the car won't start. BUT......
This could be dangerous ...... Could this be me.....
I see myself now......rolling out of bed onto the floor where I crawl to the office in my basement.
It's cool in the basement so I wrap an old blanket I find in the laundry room around my shoulders.....8 hrs later my children knock tentatively on the door .....I open it and they cringe at both the sight and smell of mommy ......my greasey hair with dark roots about 3 inches long, coffee stained sweats, I'm carrying dirty dishes and empty beer cans out of my office, I squint at the natural light coming down the stairs from the kitchen above.
Alright, I'm sure it won't be that bad but do I want to do the "work from home" thing?
I don't mind getting out of my Lu Lu Lemon sweats and jeans to don the office casual garb.
I don't mind dropping my kids off at school and stopping at my Starbucks as I head into the office.
I have some nice shoes and skirts that I only wear to work....I want a reason to buy more!
I hate having to go to work in a snowstorm.
I don't like the commute...wasting gas/global warming and all that.
Argh!

And I Quote!

The following quotes were sent to me via e mail from a friend....I HAD to share....
LANGUAGE

There was a time when words were used beautifully. These glorious insults are from an era when cleverness with words was still valued, before a great portion of the English language was boiled down to four-letter words!


The exchange between Churchill and Lady Astor:
She said, "If you were my husband, I'd give you poison," and he said,
"If you were my wife, I'd take it."

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Gladstone, a member of Parliament, to Benjamin Disraeli :
"Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."

"That depends, sir," said Disraeli, "On whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

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"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

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"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."

- Winston Churchill

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"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."

- Winston Churchill.

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"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."

- Clarence Darrow.

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"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner(about Ernest Hemingway).

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"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"

- Ernest Hemingway(about William Faulkner).

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"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."

- Moses Hadas.

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"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."

- Abraham Lincoln.

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"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."

- Mark Twain.

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"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."

- Oscar Wilde .

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"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend....

if you have one." -

George Bernard Shaw toWinston Churchill.

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"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."

- Winston Churchill, in response.

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"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here."

- Stephen Bishop.

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He is a self-made man and worships his creator."

- John Bright.
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"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."

- Irvin S. Cobb.
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"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others."

- Samuel Johnson.

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"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up."

- Paul Keating.

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"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure".

- Jack E. Leonard.

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"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt."

- Robert Redford.

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"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed.



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"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."

- Forrest Tucker.

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"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"

- Mark Twain.

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"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.

- Mae West.

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"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."

- Oscar Wilde.

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"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang(1844-1912).

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"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."

- Billy Wilder.

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"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."

- Groucho Marx.

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A WOMAN MARRIES A MAN EXPECTING HE WILL CHANGE; HE DOESN'T.
A MAN MARRIES A WOMAN EXPECTING SHE WILL REMAIN THE SAME; SHE DOESN'T.
anonymous