Sharontology

2.12.12 - Murmuration

2012-02-12T18:45:00.001-05:00

"Murmuration"
How lucky we were to capture these birds rising up out of the corn fields

We set out relatively early today on one of our weekly adventures...gas in the car, take out cup of coffee and a general agreement about whether to go north, east, south or west.
We went east, straight forward into the endless country roads of southern New Jersey where we wandered for hours and hours.
Cold temperature and snow covering be damned!

Please do not think for one minute that you know New Jersey because of all of the television shows*.
The above picture - and many, many of my other pieces - show the other side of New Jersey.
And that's the greatest thing about my state: it is so much of so many things all blended together to make up this wonderful, maddening, fascinating, amusing, beautiful hodge-podgey melting pot that is New Jersey.

I love it here.

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America (http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com)
and also at ImageKind (http://SOHuey.imagekind.com)
Other select merchandise available at Printfection: (http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology)

*I have no problem with any of the New Jersey-based television shows. We New Jerseyans are who we are. Often imitated, never duplicated. ;-)

2.4.12 - The Past Week: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2012-02-05T09:16:00.000-05:00

Wow! I can't believe it's been more than a week since I last posted anything here. Time definitely flies when you're in the middle of wackiness.
It has been one helluva chaotic time since the last post.

For one, I had to get a ton of my prints framed and greeting cards assembled for placement in the Delaware City Upscale Resale store. That took days! Ugh. Some of the prints weren't coming out right so they had to be re-sent a couple of times until, finally, they were right. Yay!

Additionally, I was in the middle of making sparkle.shine.glow. official. That meant trips to City Hall, paperwork sent to Trenton (the NJ capital where official stuff happens), etc. Bleh. Nonetheless, it was worth it because we are now a real business and that is just so cool.
*
Unbelievably, in this last week I also found myself to be at the mercy of a Facebookian.
A Facebookian is someone who you are Facebook friends with that you think is mostly normal and then - KAPOW! - out of nowhere they go all weird and wonky and narcissistic on you and post ridiculous, drama queen things based on assumptions and I don't know what else on your Facebook wall where, instead of achieving their goal of making you look/feel bad, they manage to make complete fools of themselves, leaving other people who witness the debacle to question their sanity & maturity level.
Their "coup de grâce" is to defriend you. (Oh, no, not that!)

To which I say: Goodbye and good riddance.
Like one real friend said after witnessing this misadventure: "You're like a magnet for nutcases".
Yeah.

Sadly, my uncle passed away in the past week also. He and my aunt were married for 60 years, can you imagine? So great.
When I was little I was always at their house and I actually lived with them for a spell when my parents built a new house in another town and I didn't want to move and switch schools. Uncle Stash would make these killer fried egg on hard roll sandwiches for me on the weekends. I don't know why I remember them or why they were so special but I suspect they were infused with whatever makes up the happy, carefree days of youth.
He also made the most perfect, authentic Polish beet soup...a serious treat we always looked forward to on Christmas eve.
Most importantly, you never saw him without a smile on his face. I'll miss that smile.
RIP Uncle Stash. ♥

This upcoming week will bring more work to finally finalize the website and then hopefully I can get out and take some new pictures to work on. I've got a huge stockpile of images to work with but I'm always looking for an excuse to run off on an adventure and discover some new stuff. Doing that is good for the soul.

The sparkle.shine.glow. Facebook page is up & running and I've worked pretty hard to get some followers for it but I can't worry too much about the numbers or it will take me over and become a major distraction/obsession.
Another real friend gently suggested to me that I stop posting my images on the sparkle.shine.glow. Facebook page in their true, whole form because it's so easy for other people to just download them. It was something I'd been thinking about anyway and she was right so I started adding a watermark to all of my posted images and reducing their size so if they were downloaded, they wouldn't be worth much. But I absolutely HATE how they look when they're all reduced and pixel-y so I think I'll have to figure that out this week, too.
So much to do...but I am loving every minute of it.

Finally, I really want to thank every single person starting with my husband who has been cheering for me recently with no strings or conditions attached and with a whole lot of understanding.
Also, all my Facebook page followers who have been 'liking' their hearts out and sending me such nice messages.

1.26.12 - Fort Delaware Merchants Row

2012-01-26T18:30:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.26.12 - Snowy Church Day In Delaware City

2012-01-26T11:57:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.24.12 - Delaware City Bridge

2012-01-25T08:27:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.22.12 - Alloways Creek

2012-01-23T08:57:00.000-05:00

Alloways Creek @ Hancocks Bridge, NJ

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.21.12 - Canoe Rentals

2012-01-23T08:55:00.000-05:00

Original image captured in Delaware City, Delaware

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.20.12 - Clouds Over Hook Road

2012-01-20T09:50:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.19.12 - Sunset At New Castle

2012-01-19T13:30:00.000-05:00

Battery Park, New Castle, Delaware

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.17.12 - Determination

2012-01-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.16.12 - Wisdom All Around

2012-01-16T09:15:00.000-05:00

Image captured at Seabreeze, NJ

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.15.12 - Winter's Beach

2012-01-15T09:19:00.000-05:00

Bay Head, New Jersey on a cold winter's day

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.13.12 - Winter Weeping Willow

2012-01-13T09:20:00.001-05:00

Bare weeping willow, Salem, New Jersey

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.12.12 - Hello Dusk

2012-01-12T14:09:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.12.12 - Cow Manure

2012-01-12T14:07:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.12.12 - Blue Garage

2012-01-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com
Other merchandise available at Printfection: http://www.printfection.com/Sharontology

1.5.12 - Winter Hysteria

2012-01-05T11:34:00.001-05:00

Many people don't like winter - perhaps you're one of them - but my disdain for this time of year goes beyond dislike.
Well beyond.
Winter makes me panic, in the true sense of the word. I get nuts. Irrational. Hysterical.
Winter makes my ~~dry~~ skin crawl.
Yesterday morning it was in the teens here in New Jersey and when my husband left for work he said he actually prayed for me. Prayed that I would find the strength to get me through the cold snap.
That's how bad I get. People have to pray for me.

I seriously get catatonic. I just want to sit in one place and count the days until March 1st. March 1st is the big date for me; the day when hope returns. Yes, I know, March can be a cold, unpredictable, mean month...but it's March...as in, not January or February.
I can't find anything redeeming about winter. I've tried. Each year I think this year will be different. This year I'm going to buy wonderfully warm winter clothing at LL Bean or some other horridly similar retailer and I'm going to dress up in my new 14 layers of ugly clothing and I'm going to embrace winter with my flannel-wrapped arms and gloved hands wrapped around it even though I'm so encumbered I can barely move. Why, I may even go skiing or sledding or hiking and laugh heartily when snow disgustingly works its way under my clothes and I won't even mind the chafing.
And when outdoor fun isn't possible, I'll shout from the icy rooftop how wonderful it is to be stuck in the house. Because nothing says HAPPY more than endless hours of mindless television and the overindulgence of food and alcohol while invading the personal space and sanity of everyone you live with which results in bickering and resenting the fact that your spouse has the nerve to breathe near you.

Sigh.

Myspace Countdown Clock

Myspace Countdown Clock

1.4.12 - I Love NJ

2012-01-04T21:00:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

1.4.12 - Fresh Flower Market

2012-01-04T10:39:00.001-05:00

Fresh flower for sale, Annapolis, Maryland

It's 18° here in New Jersey this morning so I thought a bit of springtime was called for. :-)

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

1.3.12 - Fairy Tale Farm

2012-01-03T12:11:00.000-05:00

A very magical farm with very magical creatures

- the likes of which you've never seen before! -

all under a star-filled sky filled with magical clouds.

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

12.31.11 - I Hate New Years Eve

2011-12-31T16:44:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's true - I am not a big fan of New Year's Eve.
I don't like drunk people, I don't like crowds, I don't like DUIs, I don't like overpriced anything.

Tonight, the place you normally buy a $5 burger at 364 days a year is charging $75 a head for appetizers and 2 drinks. Oh, it will also include the oh-so-important "~~cheap~~ champagne toast" at midnight.

There'll be entertainment, too. A DJ or a band or some other form of excruciatingly loud music that will require screaming at your companion(s) if you wish to communicate with them at all.

And while you're having all this "fun" don't forget about that guy or girl...or both. You know, the one(s) who give obnoxious a new meaning.

If I had to go out tonight and put up with any/all of the above, my own behavior would wind up devolving into something akin to this:

And no one wants that.

But whatever. You might be someone who can't wait to be in Times Square or some other wild hot spot. Whatever the case and wherever you are, Happy 2012 to you. I wish every one of you a wonderful new year...and, yes, I do mean everyone, no exclusions.

12.30.11 - Where Laura Still Lives

2011-12-30T11:08:00.001-05:00

Meet Laura Petty.

She's a little 5 or 6 year old who used to work in the farm fields of New Jersey picking blueberries a hundred years ago. I think her childhood might not have been so great so I like to put her in nice places now so maybe I can give her some of the fun she may have missed out on. :-)

The house is on a country back road somewhere near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

12.29.11 - Breaking Up With Facebook

2011-12-29T14:22:00.001-05:00

The following is a blog post written by Dara Poznar on her blog, Good At Life. I'm reposting it (with her permission) because she nailed the whole Facebook thing that I'm feeling so succinctly that I couldn't possibly expound on it any further.

I Broke Up With Facebook

About a week ago I decided I didn’t want a personal profile on Facebook anymore. It all started when on one day, for no particular reason, after several years as an avid facebooker I suddenly asked myself “why am I on here?”. Literally nothing spawned it, nothing that I am aware of anyhow, but the question was asked and needed to be answered. I came up very short when trying to think of good reasons why, or even one good reason. Of course, what makes a reason good or not is quite relative in this instance and so my thought process on the matter and the decision I made have only to do with whether or not Facebook makes sense for me, not anybody else.

I meditated on the effects of Facebook on my life in general. Here is what I came up with:

1. Facebook takes up a lot of my time (my very precious time): I admit I was totally addicted to it. I went on everyday more than once a day. I happen to be a person who has a lot of personal and professional ambitions, ideas, and interests. There are many things I have decided I want to do to enhance the quality of my life that require time and focus. Facebook has not helped me in accomplishing any of those things, not even being attentive to the people I care about, which is a top priority for me. In fact my closest friends and I don’t communicate very much at all over Facebook. We call, email, and skype when we are not together. Therefore, most of my communications on facebook are with people who are not a priority in my life. My actual priorities take a backseat everytime I sign on to FB and end up paroozing photos of someone I won’t think about again until the next time I see their name pop up in the newsfeed on Facebook.

2. Some of my friendships have actually become weaker with Facebook: I realize that some people consider “liking” status updates and photos and leaving an occasional comment on something a sufficient way to stay in touch with close friends. Not in my book. If I haven’t heard your voice or at least received an email from you in 6 months, I’d say we pretty much lost touch and are now just FB friends, not actual friends. There is a difference as far as I’m concerned. I want more, and I definitely give more.

3. I’ve become totally unmysterious: For years now I’ve shared pictures of myself, family and friends, my thoughts, my interests and my whereabouts with hundreds of people on a daily basis. I am suddenly not attracted to this way of being at all, and kind of surprised at myself for being willing to be that open with every single person I have ever met, and then some. In my personal life (the in-person one) I have more defined boundaries and choose to expose parts of myself and who I am to those with whom I have established some sort of rapport. For some reason on FB boundaries didn’t play such a strong roll. Everyone is basically equal; your neighbor from 2nd street that you haven’t seen since 1985 may find out about your bad day before your spouse. How weird is that? I suddenly find that ludacris.

4. I’ve acquired an overload of useless information: whether I ever sought out to learn such things or not, I now know things such as Donna Lewis (name has been changed) LOVES Fridays. For the last few hundred weeks in a row, she has posted a “TGIF” (sometimes followed by a “woo-hoo”) status update on Friday mornings. Guess what? She hates Mondays. I had 500 friends at one point, I’m sure you can imagine all the other things I learned. I have absolutely no need to know where everyone I know is at every moment of every day. Absolutely no need.

Now, I must say that I definitely enjoyed certain things about Facebook. Occasionally someone would post something that inspired me or made me smile, and that was great. It was very exciting in the beginning to re-connect with people from my past who I totally lost track of. I found my best friend from kindergarten! That was cool. But at this point, the excitement has worn off. I found, or was found by, every single person who I could ever hope to be reunited with (plus many others) within the first year. By the end of the second year I knew way more about most of their lives for someone who really doesn’t “know” them than I should, and vice-versa. By the third year I was no closer in any meaningful or life-enhancing way to any of those people I found or who had found me. By now, I’m over it.

I like things that make me think and reflect. The majority of the content on Facebook has not provided me with very much opportunity to do that. Instead it has caused me to zone out & mindlessly scroll through status updates, profile pages, & photographs of people who would find it weird if I ever phoned them up to chat. I know many people feel FB is a great way to keep in touch with people, and that’s fair enough. As for me, I prefer to hear from a more distant friend once or twice a year who thought of me out of the blue and wanted to reach out, then once a week while in the process of liking multiple status updates and posting greeting comments on numerous friends’ pages of which I am just one. And if it takes seeing my name in the newsfeed for them to remember me, it’s ok if I never hear from them at all.

So now I’m at the point where I realize:

I don’t have time for Facebook

I am only willing to share the more personal parts of myself, my thoughts, and my life with actual friends & others with valuable shared interests

I want to focus more energy on learning even more about the important people in my life & others who truly interest me instead of sqandering time daily observing the lives of hundreds of people from a distance

That’s basically it. I feel that Facebook served its purpose at one time. I enjoyed it. Now it’s time to move on. I’m in the mood for a little more depth, a little more quality, and a little more congruity these days. And I have to admit, I don’t miss it one bit. It was time.

Be you and enjoy it!

*I will severely curtailing my personal Facebook page but my business pages will remain in place and unaffected.
I look forward to forging new, rewarding relationships - business and otherwise - in 2012.

12.23.11 - Back To The Drawing Board

2011-12-23T10:45:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd finally found a blog template that worked but I just discovered I was wrong.
I just checked this blog in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome and it looks different in all three.
Sometimes the text is bold when it shouldn't be...or it's teensy tiny and if you're old like me there is no way in hell that you're reading it without a magnifying glass.

Maybe video blogging is a better option?

Nah.
Then I'd always have to be sure I was put together with makeup and hair done, etc.
And you should see what I look like half the time when I sit down to write. Not something I want to share with the world.

I'm sorry if you're experiencing problems viewing this blog.
My goal is to remedy it by the end of the year.

I couldn't figure out who to give credit to for the above image. If you know, let me know. Thanks.

12.23.11 - Rudeness

2011-12-23T09:58:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was Rude Day. Did you know? No? Good, that means you were not affected by it.
I was, a couple of times.

The first time was right here, on the Internet. It was a small thing involving these:

I ♥love♥ platform heels with socks. Always have, always will. So I'm thrilled that this look is coming back in style. I said as much on a particular website and the short story is that someone who doesn't love this look was all "Really?!" and snarky about it. It = my personal taste.
Rude.
This is how the world works: you like some stuff and sometimes other people don't like what you like.
That's why there is VARIETY and CONTRAST.
You can say, "Oh, I really don't like that thing and the person who does like it is stupid/ridiculous/an idiot because they don't like what I like or think like I think and I think that I will go ahead and disrespect their personal taste/opinion even though I would hate it if someone did that to me."
Or you can say, "Oh, I really don't like that thing but I am sure glad there is this other thing to like and focus on instead."
Your choice. (Pssst. People will like you better if you choose the latter option. Oh, you're not one of those "who cares if people like me?" people, are you? Please. To one degree or another, you care and you know it.)

Whoever one is, and wherever one is,

one is always in the wrong if one is rude.

~Maurice Baring

The second rude thing that happened yesterday was in ~~TJ Maxx~~ a retail environment. We were in a certain department and the saleslady was not originally from this country. That meant that she was a bit difficult to understand. We were purchasing two items and she took them out of the case and when we told her that, yes, we would like to buy the two items, I thought she said "what's it for". Well, that seemed like an odd question so I asked her to repeat it and I heard "what's it for" again so I said "Christmas". She snorted (!), laughed at me, and then said that of course it was for Christmas, that's what most people were shopping for at this time of year (hello, sarcasm?!) and that she was telling me the price...34, as in dollars.
I'm not sure how they do things in her ~~planet~~ country of origin but here in the United States they use the cash register FIRST before they tell you how much your purchases are and then ask for your credit card and I pretty much said that to her. (Albeit, in Delaware there is no sales tax so technically it's easy to figure out the purchase price of things but in this case she rounded up; the two items we were buying were not evenly priced, they ended with .95 or .98 or whatever so the total wasn't "34", it was more like $33.97.)

And then she said to me, "Oh, you don't like it?" It = her sales methodology.
Not kidding, she really said that.
To which I responded, "Did I say that?", all head-bobbing and Jersey-like.

At that point, husband implemented his amazing powers of knowing exactly when to distract me in the best interest of everyone so he sort of pointed out other pretty, sparkly things to me so that I would walk away from this *$#%! before it got really ugly.

We also had observed her tell another customer that "no one in the store could help her" with her question about perfumes because "this isn't a department store. What's there is there."
Again, not kidding.
Chances are this nutcase wasn't winning any awards at the customer service convention this year.

Rude x 100.

I didn't ask what ~~planet~~ country she hailed from but I should have so that I make it a point to never go there.
Rude is the easy way out.
Rude displays, for all the world to see, a small mind and bad manners.
I've never understood the 'allure' of being rude, mean-spirited, etc. (I'm also someone who doesn't think it's cute or funny to call oneself a bitch, but that's a story for another time.) That's not to say that I'm high and mighty and immune to displaying bad behavior; in fact, there are times when I'll see your rude and, if pushed, I'll raise my nasty. But I try to remember to kill a mean person with kindness or call them out by asking point blank why they're being rude.
That's called the High Road.
And it takes the wind right out of their sails. The payoff for rudeness/meanness is reaction. Don't give them one. Try not to lower yourself to a rude person's level.
The view is not so great from there.

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others.

If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter which fork you use.

~Emily Post

12.19.11 - Willow Farm

2011-12-19T09:06:00.001-05:00

Forgive me if I've mentioned this before but I just LOVE living in South Jersey. I swear, everytime I/we leave the house we discover some other awesome thing.
For example, who knew that just one mile from our house is Willow Farm?

We're always out taking aimless drives to nowhere and if you're interested in doing this, too, then what you have to do is be willing to turn off of the main roads and stop being afraid of getting lost. Really, chances are that if you are reading this, you don't live in a place where you'd never be found again if you got lost. Well, unless you're like in Death Valley or some other similarly horrid place or you're those people who had to call 911 when they couldn't find their way out of a corn maze. But hopefully you're smart enough to know not to get off the main road if you're in the desert or if you're the couple from the corn maze and you're anywhere.

Anyway, we've done a lot of exploring in the few short months we've lived here but there's a side road just up the way that we never turned onto until this weekend.

Yes, this is New Jersey

(click on images to enlarge and see the detail)

Just a ways up this road we came upon Willow Farm and these fellows on one side of the road:

This is on the other side of the road:

I have no words to describe the delight I felt in finding this roadside shop treasure. You can buy stuff here! Jams & jellies, honey, candles, peacock feathers, goat soap, fresh eggs and goat food!
And there's an honor box where you place your money for your purchases. Do you know how much things like honor boxes thrill me? It's like stepping back in time...a simpler yet richer time.
And they even thoughtfully supply antibacterial hand cleaner for after you feed the goats and have goat drool on your hands. :-)

I'm going back today.
I might even go back every day.
Once springtime comes I can ride my bicycle there.

Bliss.

12.18.11 - Christmas Expectations

2011-12-18T10:54:00.001-05:00

I am reposting this because it is exactly what I needed right about now.
This is the time of year when sentimentality can get the better of me and override common sense and the acceptance that things (and people) are what they are.

I know that there are plenty of other people out there who don't have the kind of family they wish they did and if you are one of them (I hope you're not, though), maybe this will help you, too.

From the article A Week of Christmas: Adjusting Our Expectations by Fiona McColl

“Christmas Amnesty. You can fall out of contact with a friend, fail to return calls, ignore e-mails, avoid eye contact at the Thrifty-Mart, forget birthdays, anniversaries, and reunions, and if you show up at their house during the holidays (with a gift) they are socially bound to forgive you—act like nothing happened. Decorum dictates that the relationship move forward from that point, without guilt or recrimination.” - Christopher Moore

Ahhh if only it were so simple! Have you ever tried the strategy of waiting until a holiday or another important occasion and then sending a gift or a card and hoping that it would build a bridge, heal a hurt, open a door… only to find the gift or card unceremoniously returned, or never mentioned? How about inviting someone you have a strained relationship or no relationship with, to join you for the holidays – only they don’t show up, or they do show up and its just terribly awkward and uncomfortable … or worse?
It happens.
We have such high expectations for the allure of occasion. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is our belief that holidays are magical and special that allows us to step outside of our normal day-to-day routine and enjoy ourselves.
It is also our expectation that holidays should be magical and special that can trip us up and leave us feeling lonely, unloved and anything but special at Christmas when the day fails to measure up to our imagination of what it could be or should be.
It’s time to adjust our expectations.
Christmas comes bearing all sorts of stresses; battling the malls and going shoulder to shoulder with other holiday shoppers, decorating, invitation sending, menu planning, grocery getting, cooking, cleaning, gift wrapping, entertaining. Or simply the stress of managing the social expectation of what Christmas is (or is not). We juggle the expectation that because it is Christmas time, we are supposed to be and do things in a better, more loving, more caring, more forgiving and giving way. And we have expectations about others doing the same thing. Somehow Christmas is supposed to be suspended from the reality we live the other 364 days of the year. Whew!
Must we add resolving family problems and curing estrangement to the to-do list?
Some may say that Christmas just isn’t Christmas when there are empty places at the table and the people we expect to be there are not. They might believe that holidays simply aren’t worth having while family rifts are happening. Some people spend their holidays planning and imagining reconciliation. They may even think that it is not possible to enjoy the season, in spite of absence. Yet many of us do exactly that.
In order to accomplish this, we must adjust our Christmas expectations. We start by looking to the people and relationships who are present. We look to spend time with our immediate family, our inner circle of close friends, even acquaintances whose company we enjoy. If we are the only person present, we learn that we matter, and we deserve a special day too …
We learn not to stack the deck against ourselves by expecting a Disney Christmas, and we instead decide what would make the day magical for us and those we love and care about. We plan to create a holiday experience that is achievable – that means we keep our focus on the things we reasonably can do and want to do!
If your favourite part of the holiday is baking or cooking – do that – even if it is just for you – you are worth a beautiful meal or a shortbread cookie. If you enjoy Christmas carols, crank em up! Buy a present for yourself. Get it gift wrapped.
If you like entertaining, invite someone you like to spend the day with you. If you have no one to spend the day with, consider volunteering a part of your day to a favourite cause … head off to a homeless shelter, a senior citizens home or hospital, walk a puppy at the RSPCA. Remember, with the technology available, people don’t have to be sitting in your living room to connect. Phone, instant message, Skype, email – it’s all available – use it!
Think of Christmas like a ” get out of the day-to-day grind for free” card. If it was any other day that you had completely to yourself, to do with exactly what you pleased, what would you want to be doing? Do that! Read a book, head to the beach, curl up with a mug of hot chocolate and watch cheesy movies … get your camera out and go outside, write a poem, do a crossword puzzle, play a video game, listen to some favourite music. Light a candle, have a glass of champagne … play in the snow. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Christmas is not “Drive Yourself Crazy Day” It’s not ” Bang Your Head On Closed Doors Day” and it doesn’t have to be ”Reconcile with Estranged Family Day”. Leave family problems and the resolution of estrangement for another day; a less loaded day. Adjust your expectations. Take care of yourself.

"Remember When..."

2011-12-15T18:41:00.001-05:00

What do you think they're remembering?

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"Van Gogh's Night"

2011-12-14T18:35:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"555 Wonky Street"

2011-12-12T07:55:00.001-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"My Personal 48"

2011-12-11T08:37:00.001-05:00

I turned 48 back in October which seems kinda old according to the little kid me.
You know what I mean, right? Remember when you were little and people who were over 20 years old seemed like they were serious grownups? ;-)

But I don't in many ways at all feel very old.
Mentally, of course, I'm at least 30 years younger than I actually am and I really really mean that. I'm so immature it's not funny. Just ask my husband and kid. They put up with my ridiculousness and antics on a daily basis.
It's just that I have never seen any real reason to grow up and be all serious and act mature. People who do that don't seem to be having much fun at all and since fun defines me...well, I chose to eschew all that is not laugh and smile inducing.
I've yet to hear a good reason why life should be any other way.

*~*~*

Yesterday I was working on some new digital stuff and trying out some test techniques.

I started out using this picture:

I studied it, then studied it some more. You can see that it's an interesting building but it is on the bland side. It's dowdy and it lacks color and life and it looks like it's well beyond its glory days. People might even say about it that it must have been something back in the day.

I realized that this building is what the world and the majority of society thinks 48 should look like.

So I got to work.

I fluffed and I pluffed and I tweaked and I colored.
Then I threw in some whimsy for good measure.

And I turned it into what my own personal vibrant 48 looks like:

I don't know about you, but I think it's pretty much a no-brainer which is the better picture.

Just think of the possibilites of 49, 50, 60...

P.S. Thought for the day: Betsey Johnson will be 70 years old in 2012.

"Reciprocity"

2011-12-10T12:54:00.000-05:00

"Tenfold"

2011-12-09T08:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of someone's ugliness.
I shouldn't have been surprised considering who it came from (someone from the past who should have remained there - my mistake for opening that door again) but, sadly, it did surprise me, as meanness always does whenever I am in its presence.

See, I had shared an article on Facebook that this person did not find interesting and so he felt that it was okay to insult me as a result.
I didn't give him a chance to do the "I was only kidding" and/or "can't you take a joke/don't you have a sense of humor?" thing because we all know the type of people* who use that technique and that doesn't work on or for me.

Note: If someone is insulted or offended or angered by something you said or did,

OWN IT; don't try to backpedal. Way too obvious.

*****

Happily, as a result of this incident, I will be invoking the Tenfold Rule that I came up with awhile ago to combat the small-minded. Whenever meanness rears its ugly head, ten kindnesses must be implemented to cancel out the meanness tenfold.

So, I see your ugly and I raise it to beauty ten times.
Result? You have just given me and the recipients of my kindnesses a really good day.

So there.

* "I Was Only Joking"

Like backhanded compliments, sarcasm is a common tool of a passive aggressive person who expresses his hostility aloud, but in socially acceptable, indirect ways. If you show that you are offended by the use of biting, passive aggressive sarcasm, the hostile joke teller plays up his role as victim, asking, "Can't you take a joke?"

"Why Are You Getting So Upset?"

The passive aggressive person is a master at maintaining his calm and feigning shock when others, worn down by his indirect hostility, blow up in anger. In fact, he takes pleasure out of setting others up to lose their cool and then questioning their "overreactions."

"Anniversary #2"

2011-12-07T12:38:00.000-05:00

Happy Anniversary (12/7 - Day That Will Live In Infamy) to my husband...a man who always treats me like a lady and *never* fails to show me a good time ♥

"Professional Paranoia"

2011-12-07T12:33:00.001-05:00

...so I just was reading a thread on something I subscribe to that asked opinions on people calling themselves professional photographers.
I couldn't believe how threatened people were by the word 'professional'...as if they were on the governing board of those who bestow the title of Professional on those they deemed worthy!
There were all kinds of angry posts about the definition of the meaning of a professional, up to and including how you're not a professional unless you pay taxes and have insurance.

One ~~crazy~~ lady even said that she is giving up photography because she's sick of unqualified people calling themselves professional photographers. Why on earth would you give up something important to you for that or any reason?

I just don't get the threatened thing.
Does there have to be a qualifying test for everything in order to prove your worthiness? Ridiculous, says me.
Call yourself whatever you want. Who cares, as long as you're having fun and enjoying yourself.
Pay no attention to anyone who tells you what you can't or shouldn't be doing according to their measure of how things should be done. Screw that.

Here's what I wrote on that thread:

Here are synonyms for the word 'professional' that anyone can use in case they now are afraid to call themselves 'professional'.
I am particularly fond of "crackerjack".
Crackerjack Photographer...nice.
Synonyms: able, ace, acknowledged, adept, competent, crackerjack, efficient, experienced, expert, finished, knowing one's stuff, known, learned, licensed, on the ball, polished, practiced, proficient, qualified, sharp, skillful, slick, there, up to speed, well-qualified.
P.S. "Passionate Photographer" works really nicely, too.
Because that's what it's all about.
And I dare anyone to define what passion is and is not.

"The Careful House"

2011-12-05T09:37:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"Modernity"

2011-12-05T07:13:00.001-05:00

"Horse and Buggy"

2011-12-05T06:49:00.000-05:00

Taken Sunday, December 4, 2011, near Lancaster, PA...

"The Path"

2011-12-01T12:07:00.000-05:00

"Abandoned In Fortescue"

2011-11-27T17:41:00.002-05:00

"Ocean One"

2011-11-27T06:37:00.000-05:00

Point Pleasant, New Jersey

"Stockton Planters"

2011-11-25T15:05:00.000-05:00

Stockton, New Jersey

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"Happy Thanksgiving"

2011-11-24T11:08:00.000-05:00

"Happy Christmas Tree"

2011-11-21T10:42:00.000-05:00

"Sunday In Alexandria"

2011-11-21T09:21:00.001-05:00

Sunday scene at Alexandria, Virginia...

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"Fence Post"

2011-11-21T08:45:00.000-05:00

Autumnal scene, Pennsville, New Jersey pasture...

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America: http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"Come Sit Awhile"

2011-11-21T08:29:00.000-05:00

An inviting bench along the Point Pleasant, New Jersey boardwalk...

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America:

http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"Chesapeake City Angel"

2011-11-21T08:17:00.000-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America:

http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"The Pasture"

2011-11-21T07:54:00.002-05:00

Prints and greeting cards available at Fine Art America:

http://so-huey.fineartamerica.com

"How Dunkin Donuts Changed My Life"

2011-11-19T09:49:00.000-05:00

On this day, November 19th, in 2004, I took a walk to my local Dunkin Donuts and wound up meeting my husband.
I ordered a coffee coolata and he said he'd like to buy it for me.
The rest is history.

"People Of Pennsville At The Park"

2011-11-10T07:04:00.000-05:00

.
On a sunny, warm fall day at Riverview Beach Park, Pennsville, NJ:

He was singing - rather well - Sweet Melissa by the Allman Brothers.

Family Of 4

The Lovebirds

"Use What Talents You Have"

2011-11-09T11:45:00.000-05:00

"The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best." This quote from poet Henry Van Dyke reminds us not to waste our talents or get discouraged if others are more accomplished or talented.
Have you ever stopped yourself from doing something (making an app, writing a blog, setting up a business, etc.) because that specific thing has already been done by someone else successfully? Consider this: if everyone was deterred that way, the world would be a lot blander than it is now.
Use your talents, whatever they may be. Your work doesn't have to be better than everyone else's; it just needs to be yours.

- From this article by Melanie Pinola

"Exploding Head Syndrome"

2011-11-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

A couple of nights ago, in the middle of the night, I woke up with a start.
Heart pounding, I asked my husband "what was that loud noise?!" to which he responded that I was dreaming.
What woke me up was the noise of what can only be described as an intensely loud explosion-type sound...in my head.

It happened again last night.
Fortunately, I am aware that is just my Exploding Head Syndrome acting up again.

Leave it to me to have something that is actually called and known as Exploding Head Syndrome in the medical profession.
(You can also read more about it here.)
Extreme stress and/or fatigue are thought to be likely causes which makes sense because I have been in the throes of severe insomnia for 2+ months now.
And if you have or have ever had any degree of insomnia you know how stressful it is.

Happily, it doesn't seem to be dangerous or indicative of anything more serious.
It's just...imaginary explosions that go off in my head while attempting to get some elusive sleep.

Oh well, at least it gave me a reason to draw a silly picture.

"Murmuration"

2011-11-03T10:08:00.001-04:00

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

"Old Jar Tinting"

2011-11-01T10:36:00.000-04:00

I have a thing for jars of all shapes and sizes so when I saw this fabulous craft project somewhere recently I had to try it out for myself: tinting old jars in the colors of your choice.

It's really cheap and simple and all you need is Mod Podge, food coloring (your choice of colors) and water. What's easier than that?!

Add a few drops of food coloring to about 1 teaspoon of water.

Add more or less food coloring depending upon what color you are trying to achieve.

There is no formula; trial and error is what it'll take.

Next, add the Mod Podge.

Again there is no perfect formula but I'd say it's equivalent to about 2-3 tablespoons.

You want the mix to be thick but not solid thick. Does that make sense?

Now for the fun part!

Pour the mixture into the jar.

You could also dip a paintbrush into your mixture and paint the inside of the jar.

Coat the entire inside of the jar.

Set it aside to dry.

Best to raise it up on something so the excess mixture can drip out and air can circulate.

After a lot of hours drying time - VOILA! - a tinted jar!

"Exclamatory Lament"

2011-10-30T11:18:00.001-04:00

Do you do this ---> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
Please stop, because it's obnoxious (sorry, but it really is) and does not get your excitement/point/enthusiasm/indignation/etc across any more than a single exclamation mark does.

One will do!
I promise!

"A Very Fine Birthday"

2011-10-29T18:47:00.006-04:00

✓Cupcakes

✓ Wine

✓Sparklers

✓ Presents

✓ Laughter/love with my husband and daughter

✓Doesn't get much better than this

"Personal Mobility"

2011-10-28T14:48:00.001-04:00

I saw this picture online:

(~~I don't know who the artist is but if you do please tell me so I can give proper credit~~)
UPDATE: I searched and searched and finally found the artist: Mayi Carles

And I was so inspire by it that I decided to create my own interpretation (for my own personal entertainment):

Fun!
I think I've discovered a new favorite technique!

"How To Stand Up To Adult Bullies"

2011-10-28T13:19:00.000-04:00

Please read this excellent article if you or someone you know has ever been or is currently dealing with a grown up mean person: How To Stand Up To Adult Bullies

"No Mistakes, Just Happy Accidents"

2011-10-28T12:29:00.000-04:00

I just discovered that I share my birthday - tomorrow, October 29th - with the infamous Bob Ross.

Someone once wrote him a letter in which they stated that everything in his world seems to be happy.

He responded: "That's for sure. That's why I paint. It's because I can create the kind of world that I want, and I can make this world as happy as I want it. Shoot, if you want bad stuff, watch the news."

Photo credit: Allison Hoffman of Crafty Is Cool

"Auburn Road Horse Farm"

2011-10-27T07:52:00.000-04:00

Salem County, New Jersey

"Anosmia-Induced Sadness Day"

2011-10-25T18:32:00.000-04:00

There is not a single day that I am not in some way affected by my inability to smell ever since I lost that ability 2.5 years ago.
Some days it's "meh" and some days it's devastating but everyday it is debilitating whether I want to admit that or not.
I found out today that someone I know also can't smell and it made me sad.
He said that he can still smell in his dreams so at least that's something.
I told him that I can smell in my dreams, too, and that in dreamland I actually have supersonic smelling abilities; far better than I ever had in real life. It's a brain thing and it's way too complicated to understand why that happens. I will tell you that it is not pleasant to awaken from those dreams. Immediately - before I am fully awake - there is elation: oh my God, I can smell again!
Then, the letdown. No, I can't. It was just one of those dreams again.

I looked for the humor after my comment to my friend about having supersonic smelling abilities. I have to look for the humor, always. I'll never survive this (or anything else, for that matter) without finding a way somehow to laugh at/about it.
I came up with Schnozzola, a superhero whose power is her amazing powers of scent.
You know I'm sad when I can't even muster up the silliness to draw her.

Later, I made up a list of scents that I miss terribly. I try to force myself to not think about the scents that I miss because doing so will likely send me to my bed for a couple of days, where I can take refuge from my scents-less world. But I made the list anyway. Sometimes I can't fight the fight.

I found this article today and the author (Elizabeth Zierah) nailed it when she described watching a movie and knowing that you can't smell what you are seeing happening on the screen. That's okay because movies are designed to make you imagine. You watch the movie, you imagine, and then the lights come on and you get to go back to your life...which is so filled with so many smells that you don't give much thought to and that you take for granted.
For me, the lights don't come on. I'm stuck in that movie theater, watching my life as if from afar, left to imagine, over and over and over again.

An anosmic commenter to the above article stated that she is lucky because her friends and family take it seriously. Oh, how right she is! My husband (whose own nose often goes on the fritz) and daughter are aware of the toll this has taken on me. My daughter has become my sniffer and describer. She lets me know that the uncooked meat or fish smells okay, that the milk is still fresh and that the store we're shopping in smells like cinnamon. Other people I don't think realize the gravity and toll not smelling anymore has taken on me.

That same commentor also said "I'd much rather smell a skunk than not smell daffodils".
You name the bad/offending smell and I assure you that I'd love to be able to smell it.

Note: If someone tells you they can't smell, PLEASE do not say something stupid like how you would die if you couldn't smell. That has been said to me and I can't think of what could be more insensitive. Would you tell an amputee that you would die if you didn't have two legs or arms?

It's the same thing - a loss. And a huge one at that.

Listen, I know that I could be dealing with something much, much worse. Most days I am able to remind myself of that and get on with it. I also deal with chronic pain so sometimes it's just overload and my own rule of only allowing myself to feel sorry for myself for any longer than15 minutes just gets tossed out the window. Today is one of those days.

Here is a job I am no longer qualified for.

"Brownies"

2011-10-25T17:11:00.000-04:00

"Smells I Miss"

2011-10-24T19:36:00.001-04:00

"Four Dozen Eggs"

2011-10-20T09:41:00.002-04:00

I was thinking about turning 48 years old which is what I will be doing in 9 days.
I was thinking that was kind of old but then I started dividing up the number 48 (an OCD thing - I have to compartmentalize everything so that it's evenly divided) and that 48 = 4 dozen
And that made me think of eggs.
I am 4 dozen eggs old.

When you think of your age in terms of dozens you realize that you're really not old afterall because 4 dozen eggs isn't really that many.
In fact, it made me feel like I was a spring chicken! (sorry)

Then I started thinking about each dozen of my 4 dozen years and here is what I came up with in egg parlance:

Dozen 1: Ages 1-12
These egg years were mostly over easy but there were a couple of scrambled ones. Getting locked in a metal closet by my babysitters (Egg #5?) which resulted in my lifelong struggle with claustrophobia happened during this dozen so that was pretty scrambled. On the other hand, I spent a lot of this dozen's winters in Miami Beach so that was definitely over easy.

Dozen 2: Ages 13-24
#13 was an over easy year but #14 was scrambled AND fried as it was the year that changed my life forever (my cousin who was also my best friend died).
The next few years after that are kind of a blur so I guess that makes them scrambled, too. Egg #21 was definitely sunny side up because that was the egg year that my daughter was born.

Dozen 3: Ages 25-36
#'s 25, 26, 27, 29, 30 were mostly eggscellent (Guidette Queen of the Discos, editor of majorly famous books). #28 was the year I miscarried at almost six months pregnant so that was a totally scrambled year. #'s 31-40 were complete craziness and not in a good way since they involved dealing with a mentally ill husband and my own misguidedness as a result so I think I was pretty much poached from #31 on.

Dozen 4: Ages 37-48
#'s 37-40, still poached.
#41 - sunny side up! Gave the crazy ex the boot and met the man of my dreams. A stellar year.
#'s 42-48 are the hard-boiled years. Having been through too much over the years and endured the wrath of way too many crazy people and resultant situations/drama, I've had to put up walls to protect myself as a result. Maybe that will change during the next dozen. Or maybe it won't.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to starting the next dozen on the 29th and my birthday wish is that I get at least 4 more dozen so that I'm writing something similar to this post on the approach to my 96th birthday.

"What's Been Going On"

2011-10-19T10:00:00.006-04:00

I am on Day #4 of a massive sinus situation which explains why I've been low and slow lately.
Situation = incessant debilitating headache + excessive fatigue + general feeling of malaise.
Hard to be my usual scintillating self with that going on but I have been able to get out with my camera and have managed to capture some good shots.
Thank God for the pursuit of passions that take your mind off of pain...especially when pain of one sort or another is a constant.

Fort Mott, Pennsville, NJ

Farm on Lighthouse Road

Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

Fort Mott, Pennsville, NJ

Fott Mott w/Salem Nuclear Plant in background

Then there's some stuff that I come across from time to time that I want to share and since I'm weaning myself off of Facebook (future post, stay tuned) I'll be posting those things here instead.

Like this:

And this:

"Site Redesign"

2011-10-13T05:48:00.001-04:00

The reason this blog has been looking all willy nilly wonky.

"Yesterday Near Salem, NJ"

2011-10-10T08:56:00.003-04:00

"For Whenever You're In Your Car"

2011-10-10T07:26:00.002-04:00

Notice how the windshield is so much bigger than the rear view mirror:

That's because where you're going is so much more important than where you've been.

"The Yellow Dress"

2011-10-08T11:02:00.006-04:00

Once upon a time, my mother bought me a dress.
I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I remember her coming home with it, presenting it to me and thinking that it was a pretty nice dress in all of its yellow-y goldness.
If I'm correct about what grade I was in when I received this dress then it would have been 1971 or 72. Girls still wore dresses to school a lot. With knee socks. Remember knee socks? Remember having skinny knees and not thinking twice about showing them to the world?

My mother was old school even though she herself, was oh-so-groovy. She used to go the beauty parlor - that's right, beauty parlor, not the hair salon - once a week to have her bleached blonde hair done all teased and bouffantish. She wore mini dresses and went out dancing at nightclubs where she and my stepdad drank Cold Duck. I remember that they used to go to a place called The Bedroom that was on Route 35 somewhere around Sayreville, NJ where there were a whole lot of bar-type places. The Bedroom! How risqué was that?! I thought the place had beds that you drank Cold Duck in until you felt like getting up to dance. I couldn't wait to grow up and be old enough to go there and do that. I mean, who wouldn't want to get all dressed up to go to a place where there were all these beds that you laid in with other people while drinking exotic-sounding elixirs that made you want to dance?

Anyway.
So, yeah, my mom - hypocrite that she was - would go all old school on me and lose her mind if I wanted to wear pants or, God forbid, jeans to school. She hated jeans. Hated them. Can you imagine? Pants were for playing in and that was pretty much that so I wore mostly dresses although she would give in if the pants were part of a pant set.

Dig the groovy wallpaper.

It was a nice dress, all polyester and stain-resistant, which was an important thing when it came to me (still is). I liked it very much and was pretty eager to wear it and show it off the next day, knowing full well that all my ~~bitches~~ classmates would be totally jealous.

But then my mom had to go and ruin it. In a huge, gigantic way. In a 'she did NOT just say that' way.
In a 'my mom is possessed' kind of way.

Talk about betrayal!
How could she do that to me?! How could she be so cruel?!
When did she stop loving me???

Wearing something from Goodwill was a fate far worse than death; how did my own mother not know that?!
It was worse than wearing no-name sneakers, or bo-bo's, as we called them back then.
It was worse than your friends seeing you use a free lunch card even though almost everyone I went to school had a free lunch card.
Goodwill was for POOR PEOPLE and somehow I had turned into an elitist 8 year old, mortified at the idea of wearing a dress that came from...that place. Where does that kind of pride come from when you're 8?!

What if someone saw my mother shopping there? Visions of my little equally elitist friends (half of whom were on welfare) laughing at me because they they saw my mother buying the dress at Goodwill that they would recognize when I wore it the next day while they themselves were there at Goodwill shopping with their own parents for their own school clothes danced through my head.
I could hear their taunts already: "You shop at Goodwill 'cause you're poor!" and "Your sneakers don't say Pro Keds, they say Pro Reds 'cause you got them at Goodwill! 'Cause you're poor. Bahahahahahhahahaha!!"

Clearly, my life was over.

The thing was, we weren't poor. Or, we weren't poor anymore. We had been poor - complete with food stamps, which is another story for another time - but then my mother met my future stepdad and he was pretty much Daddy Warbucks so there was absolutely no good or valid reason for the crazy woman who was my mother to shop at poor people stores anymore!
We rose up! We overcame! For God's sake, we had been to Florida!

Basically, I let my mother know in no uncertain terms that since the dress came from Goodwill I would not be wearing it in this lifetime.

Can you imagine how well that went over?
No?

Okay, well, here's me leaving for school the next day:

In one of those ironic twists of life, I love shopping at Goodwill stores now and it's not because I'm poor or on welfare.
I just really like bargains.
Hmmm, I wonder where I got that from?

-Sharon

"You Are NEVER Too Old To Play"

2011-10-08T07:14:00.002-04:00

"The Fabric Of My (Creative) Life"

2011-10-05T08:58:00.001-04:00

This is my collection of fabric that I have accumulated over the last ten years or so.

Finally housed in a $10 cabinet found on Craigslist instead of in multiple totes that have been stored in attics and basements for 2-3 years.

What you see here is absolute potential.

Let the sewing begin...

"Hello From The Motherland"

2011-10-04T13:37:00.002-04:00

So here I am, writing to you from New Jersey.

Each morning since I've moved back, I wake up knowing that it is already a good day because I am here (NJ) and I am not there (MD) but I am still going through the aftereffects of having lived there for two years in a PTSD kind of way. For example, it's going to take some time to realize that my chances of being robbed at the drive-thru window have decreased dramatically now that I'm in NJ.
Also, I left my car unlocked last night and my GPS unit was still there this morning.

Like, who did I think was going to steal it? The cows that graze across the street from my new house? That's right, COWS. I traded in one kind of animal (criminals) for the livestock kind.

Baby cows!

These photos were taken just this morning when I left the house to go to Walgreens.

It's been more than two weeks now and I'm still unpacking. I am ashamed of how much we have to pack, unpack and schlep around with us. Honestly. It is an exhausting, daunting, overwhelming thing to have way too much stuff and my recommendation to anyone is to purgepurgepurge before/during/after a move.
Purge your possessions, that is...not your meals. Although I would totally understand if you chose the latter during a move.

One of the worst aspects of moving - and there are many - is not being able to remember where you packed something. For example, I have a beloved box of threads and bobbins that I could not find after moving. What makes it beloved? Don't know; it's not as if what was inside could not be replaced. But no matter. I looked high and I looked low. I got everyone else involved and was getting rather hysterical and irrational about it, frenetically and frantically tearing through even the most illogical things and places in my attempt to locate this box. Finally, I found it -- in a box that contained winter coats -- because it makes perfect sense (not) that that would be where one would pack sewing supplies (?). And what did I do when I finally found it? Why I burst into tears, of course. Because that's what you do when your life is turned completely upside down by moving; you turn into an overwhelmed, overworked, exhausted, neurotic, blubbering mess who cries over a thread box.

Beloved thread box

As someone who has moved more times than I can count in my lifetime thus far, the best advice I can give you is to try not to move if you don't have to.
Unless you live in Marybland.

-SOH

"Baby Got Back"

2011-09-29T05:55:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I alluded to good news that I would be sharing soon and today is that day.
I'm not sure I can adequately express how wonderful it is to say, finally, that I am back in New Jersey.
Not back for a visit.
Not back for a day trip.
Not back for someone's event.
No, I am BACK as in once again a bona fide resident of my beloved Garden State.

"Plain Old Black & White"

2011-09-14T10:23:00.002-04:00

http://goddamnyourebeautiful.tumblr.com/

"Cataclysmically Speaking"

2011-09-10T10:57:00.001-04:00

It's been a little while since I posted, huh?
Yeah, well, that's because Armageddon has been slowly unveiling itself near or at where I live and I have been dealing with the effects and aftereffects of what can only be explained as the wrath of an angry God.
Do you think I'm kidding? Read on...but be warned that this is going to be a loooong post:

ANTS
The first stirring of trouble came when I started noticing ants a few weeks ago. A couple in the kitchen and a few in my office...not a big deal. Everyone sees an ant or two in their home occasionally, right? Well, sure. Except that one or two rapidly turned into more than that and I was getting seriously skeeved out by them (I do not abide by any creatures of any sort in my home, no way no how). I put every item of food into the fridge and then refused to cook until I could do so again in an ant-free kitchen. We wasted some money on those little ant hotels-of-doom...which our ants just laughed at as they marched past them.

I was outside one day and noticed that all along the foundation of the house there were an amazing number of ants. I'm talking Ant Lollapalooza. Instantly, this went from being an annoyance to being an urgent situation. I called for an exterminator to come out and give us an estimate and a couple of days later (!) he came out, had a look around, told me there were ants along the foundation (!!) and that they'd MAIL ME THE ESTIMATE (!!!) in a couple of days. Yeah, I know. You would think that an exterminating company would understand that THERE ARE BUGS IN THE HOUSE and that the people who live there WOULD LIKE THEM TO NOT BE THERE ANYMORE STARTING IMMEDIATELY. But no, they don't do it that way in Marylfunk.
So a day passes and JP has had enough ~~of my hysteria~~ so he calls the exterminating company and finds out that they want many hundreds of dollars to off the little f***ers and that wasn't happening so the exterminating company told him to go to Home Depot and buy any Terro products since they'll work just as well. Nope, not kidding, they really told him that. So we did that. And it worked. Hooray! I thought that life would then go back to normal. Little did I know it was only the beginning...

TORNADO
It was a perfectly fine day and then all of a sudden it wasn't so fine out and it got all dark and blowy. I was at home with Sherbie (adult child who still lives at home and probably always will) thinking about what to make for dinner. We switched the weather channel on and, sure enough, tornado watch. Or warning. Whatever is the lesser of the two, I can never remember. Anyway, there's this television meteorologist guy who lives nearby and who posts frequent weather-related updates on his Facebook page and it doesn't take long before he starts frantically posting radar maps that basically show the street we live on with funnel clouds overhead and his messages are getting scarier and scarier...things like "URGENT! TAKE COVER NOW IF YOU ARE IN THIS AREA!", etc.

And there's me, trying to act and calm, cool and collect for Sherb's benefit but really I'm freaking and JP is not home and I don't know why that matters - like he'd stop the tornado somehow? - but it did matter. You're told to go in the basement (if you have one) in the event of a tornado but can I tell you how much I hesitate with that? Aside from being a severe claustrophobic, I seriously do not want the house to collapse and trap me in the basement where they won't be able to get to me for days and I'll be forced to eat crickets and dryer lint to survive. Not happening. I hovered near the basement door, holding the doggie and ready to get Sherb down there but I didn't do it and I probably should have, just to be safe. Or at least put us all in the bathtub. That's supposed to be another good place to go, too, right?

Ultimately the tornado missed us but was spotted over the Chesapeake Bay which is close to here and way too close for comfort. The good news is that no one was harmed in this tornado episode and the only damage sustained was that the percentage of gray hair on my head that increased by 5%.

EARTHQUAKE
A few days after the tornado scare I was editing some articles using the laptop and sitting on the couch doing so. I felt some vibration under my feet and thought that a truck was passing by. But, no, it grew stronger and was now more of a rumble. And it was lasting too long. That's when the house started vibrating and I said, out loud, "this is an earthquake" even though no one was home but me. Then the house started to shake

and I heard something fall upstairs and the next thing I remember is that I was standing out front with the dog under one arm and the cell phone in my other hand. Now all the neighbors are pouring out of their houses and the one neighbor is being all Charles In Charge and is telling me to not stand under the trees and we're all trying to call people but there's no cell service. Sherb was 5 minutes away downtown at the coffee shop and I'm hearing all kinds of crazy sirens from that area and I am absolutely quaking on the inside (pun intended) because I can't get in touch with her. Finally, 40 minutes later, she pulls up and JP is texting me and I'm not sure there's a better feeling in the world than when you have confirmation that your family is okay.

HURRICANE
I was not very worked up about the hurricane even though most of the rest of the East Coast was. I'd been closely monitoring the weather and reading the maps and took a lot of comfort in knowing that it would be a Category 1 by the time it hit my area. Not quite the Katrina episode people like Jim Cantore were making it out to be. Still, I took some precautions by buying some bottled water and crappy food like Beefaroni and PopTarts in the event that we lost power and couldn't cook.
It got pretty windy and the rain was hard and steady and then - POP! - the power goes off at the height of the storm. We lit a candle and the just went to bed.

FLOOD #1
The next thing that happens sometimes in a hurricane is that the basement floods and all your stuff gets nasty wet and you have to spend an entire day sorting and tossing away things like years of memories.

POWER OUTAGE
So you know how I mentioned above that the power went out? Yeah, well, it "went out" for 5 days.

During the days it wasn't so bad except for no internet which meant no work for me. I want to tell you, though, that after about 24 hours of no power you sort of get enraged about it and you rant about how much $ you pay the utility company and they can't figure out how to turn the power back on blah blah blah. Then, after 24 hours, you become resolved to the situation and realize that you are at the power company's mercy and are completely powerless, literally and figuratively. You read books. You clean. You boil water on the gas grill outside for coffee. At night, you have real conversations by candlelight instead of watching mindless television. At some point you start thinking that maybe - just maybe - it doesn't suck that much even thought it kinda really does.

ESCAPED CRIMINAL
The hurricane was on Saturday. The power didn't come back on until Thursday night. On Friday it seemed like all was right with the world. Sherb and I headed out together to run some errands and on our way back we notice that there is a helicopter hovering over our neighborhood. We make the turn into our neighborhood and not only is there a helicopter but there are about 100 cops and cop cars everywhere blocking roads and looking into people's cars with their guns drawn!

This is an actual picture of an actual cop

actually searching for an escaped criminal in my neighborhood

We race home and find out that a criminal has escaped custody from the courthouse that is up the block and is believed to be hiding in the neighborhood. This is no ordinary criminal who steals mopeds or car stereos. Oh no, this is a criminal who is imprisoned because he is a rapist and kidnapper and a murder attempter. And he's hiding in my neighborhood. And we've been out so we don't know if maybe he decided that our house was a good place to hide. I walked around the house doing a perimeter search (no, I'm normally not that brave but pure adrenaline coursing through your veins works in mysterious ways) and didn't see anything out of the ordinary so we went inside. The phone rings a few times with messages from the police department advising those of us in the area to stay in the house and lock all doors and windows. If you have never received that type of call I want you to count your blessings right now. We sat in the house for the rest of the day listening to the helicopters hovering and JP and I slept downstairs on the couches so we would be sure to hear anything weird. Thankfully, the criminal made a run for it around midnight and a very alert resident saw him and the cops swooped in a recaptured him. His location? Exactly 8/10ths of a mile from my house.

POWER OUTAGE #2
The next event we had to deal with was the flooding rains that were stalled in our area because of the combination of a low pressure system and some tropical storms. Guess what they caused? Yup, another power outage. KAPOW! went the transformer, plunging us yet again into darkness. That's when I almost lost it. Seriously. If someone took my blood pressure when I heard that transformer blow I think it would have set a record. Luckily we were only in the dark this time for a few hours. I think BGE, our pathetic power company, has figured out that you can only push people so far.

FLOODED BASEMENT #2
The flooding rains I mentioned above? Yeah, they decided to pay a visit once again to my basement. So all the stuff that was salvaged in the first flood now has to be sorted yet again and even more memories will wind up in a landfill somewhere. Oh well. It's only stuff, right?

So that's what's been up with me since the last time I posted a mere 2.5 weeks ago. I'm very humble right now and taking everything in stride as best I can. Amazingly, in the middle of all of this, we actually have some very good news but I'll share that in another post in a few days.
I hope your past couple of weeks has not been anywhere near as eventful as mine.

XO,
Sharon

"Emergency Preparedness List & Instructions"

2011-08-25T13:14:00.001-04:00

Repeat as necessary.

"Do You Live In The Clouds, Too?"

2011-08-20T07:24:00.001-04:00

@A Beautiful Revolution

"I Go Through This Sickness Every Year At This Time"

2011-08-17T18:41:00.001-04:00

"Sunflower"

2011-08-16T14:21:00.001-04:00

"Farmers Markets"

2011-08-15T12:23:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend, a local site posted this:

Find the prices at the Anne Arundel County Farmers Market a little too steep? The county is now making coupons available to qualifying seniors to help ease the burden of shopping at the markets.
What do you think of the prices at the farmers markets?

Coupons, for the farmers market.
That you have to qualify for.
Sigh...
And you have to love the "to help ease the burden of shopping at the markets" line. Holy cow!

Anyone else remember when farmers markets were where you went to buy produce because it was cheap?!

Recently we were driving around southern New Jersey (aka the Garden State) and we stopped at three separate places to buy produce. Two of those places were little stands set up on people's front lawns where they sold the produce from their backyard gardens. Aside from getting the best tomatoes and green peppers, the other best part was that they used the honor system to collect payment. We pulled up, picked out what we wanted (they even had plastic bags) and slid the money into the slot that was cut out on the top of a box or can.

No exorbitant prices, no fancy packaging with gold-foiled labels, no employees watching you to make sure you didn't steal anything, no Starbucks cup carrying crowds, no tripping over countless baby jogger stroller things.
Just vegetables and fruits and some recycled plastic bags thoughtfully put out to bag your purchases.

And I didn't even have to qualify to shop there or use a single coupon.
No burden at all.
In fact, quite the opposite.

-Sharon

"The Cure For Anything"

2011-08-14T21:07:00.001-04:00

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.
-Isak Dinesen

"Let That Be A Lesson To You!"

2011-08-11T13:59:00.002-04:00

I recently had the most excellent thing happen to me: I got humbled.

Note: I am not referring to humiliation. Humiliation and humility are two very different things. This post refers to the latter.

Being humbled is the equivalent of God or the Universe smacking you upside the head and saying "Oh, you think so, Miss Smarty Pants?". I recognized the worth of this happening a long time ago. It was right around the time that I became aware that -- astonishingly -- I don't actually know everything.

So there I was...going along happily making judgments about a thing when something happened that made me realize that I was pretty much totally ~~arrogant~~ wrong. I know, hard to believe...but true!

When this happens, you find that you have two choices. You can:
(a) Proceed haughtily in denial, admitting to no one - not even yourself - that you were wrong. No way will you ever 'fess up. Your pride and 'rightness' are way more important than things like being a better person or learning from your mistakes.
(b) Woman/Man up and admit that you were a assumptive jerk. Being knocked down off your high horse from time to time is good for the soul and can make you think before acting or judging in similar future circumstances.

I went with (b) and I admitted it out loud to the people around me when I told the story. That's just me, though; you don't have to spill it to anyone when you woman/man up. I do that not so those around me will say/think "oh, what a fine person Sharon is" because if I were so fine I wouldn't have been such a judgmental twit in the first place. Instead, I admit it out loud as a way of cementing the lesson. Telling others that I was behaving poorly rubs a larger dose of humble salt into my cocky wound and from time to time I need that.

Of course, there are some things for which I will continue to be a judgmental jerk and will make no apologies for. For example, when it comes to people with poor grammar/spelling. But that's a post for another time.

-Sharon

*Humility image courtesy of 19melissa68

"Aren't These Divine?"

2011-08-09T20:05:00.002-04:00

Go HERE to indulge.

~Sharon

"Mmmmmmarshmallows"

2011-08-05T17:27:00.002-04:00

"I Have Insomnia Because Of Marybland"

2011-08-03T15:04:00.003-04:00

I suffer from insomnia + a bunch of other stuff that we don't need to get into now. I used to think that the insomnia was caused by some/all of the other stuff but then I got to thinking that maybe the other stuff was a result of the insomnia and then I just took a nap because thinking about all of this and trying to figure it out made me more tired than I already am.

My insomnia comes in waves. Months will go by and I will sleep perfectly fine. Well, perfectly fine for me, that is. Perfectly fine means never any more than six hours thanks to an industrial-strength inner clock that can't be turned off. For example, if I go to sleep at 11pm I'll wake up at 5am. If I go to sleep at 9pm I'll wake up at 3am. I personally have no idea what it means to sleep in and I'm not really sure I'd want to know. anyhow. As someone with 150 things to do at any given time, too much sleep sounds like a waste of time to me. I do like the idea of going to bed early, however, even though it's something I could never do because of that six-hour thing.

So, yeah, my insomnia used to come in waves. February used to be a particularly bad month for it. But that was before we moved from New Jersey to Marybland nearly two years ago. Once we got here all hell broke loose for me and my sleep cycle...or lack thereof. I attribute this to Marybland sucking really badly.

I'm sorry if that statement offends you but this is my blog which means I get to express my personal opinion and my personal opinion is that Marybland is revolting. Do you love Marybland? You should start a blog about it! I don't love it. In fact, I pretty much detest it. Detesting it isn't hard to do at all. Ever been to Baltimore? Ever had to contend with Marybland drivers? Ever checked the crime rates? Ever had to register a car? Ever notice how one highway just leads to more highways? Ever tried to cross the Bay Bridge? Ever notice the off the charts sense of entitlement people in Annapolis possess? Ever experience your skin crawling by the way people from Marybland (Murlin) speak (Bawlmor)? It's a D or a T, people, and they're not that hard to say. Say it with me: Dee. Tee. Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Teeeeeeeeeeeee.
O's, too, are prounouced strangely. For example, to the rest of the world this...

is David Bowie (boh-ee, bow-ee). To people from Murlin, he is David Buoy (boo-ee), like the thing that floats in water. You do not refer to Bowie, Murlin, as Boh-eee. It is Boo-eee and that is just stupid.

This is a BOW. It is not a BOO.

Speaking of stupid, can I tell you about the embarrassing television commercials for local Murlin businesses? Many of them seem to think it's the thing to do and proof of that is that you are endlessly subjected to them each time you turn on the television.
Here's a couple of examples:

There are no words.
(I know, bad commercials exist everywhere. But this post is about Marybland so I am singling their commercials out for the purposes of venting and attacking.)
And then there's the crab thing. Now, everyone knows that I love crabs -- love to catch 'em, love to eat 'em. But here in Murlin crabs are not simply something to catch or eat. Instead, they are a lifestyle. Everywhere you look there is crab jewelry, crab dinnerware, crab signage that you can hang in and around your home, crab clothing, crab flavored popcorn, crab restaurants, shoes with crabs on them, crab stationery and Christmas cards, crab-shaped cookies, etc etc etc...OMG, please make it stop.
And if there is another explanation besides greed that makes crabs so expensive here in the freakin' crab capital of the world I'd love to hear it.

In Murlin you must pump your own gas and Murlin people are proud of this. I know that pumping your own gas is the rule in the United States rather than the exception but I am New Jersey born and bred and we don't pump gas and you will have a hard time convincing me that it should be any other way. Oh yes, it's such a delightful thing to do when it's 900 degrees outside (the average summer temperature in Murlin) and you have to leave your deliciously air-conditioned car to go inside and pay for the gas that you have to come back outside to pump as you stand there sweltering and melting into the pavement. The same holds true for when it's 12 degrees outside only you're freezing outside instead of remaining in your toasty warm car. And let's be real, here: what woman doesn't want to pump her own so she can smell like gasoline?
Of course, you can elect to use a credit/debit card at the pump to save the walking inside/outside step but in this crime-ridden state I wouldn't recommend it. The criminals are clever here. For example, recently my husband stopped to purchase gas. In Murlin, you must pay for your gas before you pump it and so he went inside the convenience store to pay for the gas he did not yet pump and then decided that he was thirsty so he walked to the back of the store to select a drink and then pay for that. Then he walked back outside to his car which was parked at the pump all ready for him to gas up.
Except there was no nozzle connected to the pump he was parked alongside.
Well, there was a nozzle but it was being used by someone else. That's right, while my husband was in the store making his purchases, some ~~douchebag~~ other person had pulled up to the pump on the other side of the one where my husband's car was parked, reached around and stretched the nozzle of the pump over to his side and proceeded to pump the gas my husband had just paid for into his own car.
What a charming Murlin resident/representative of this fine state.

Here is one thing positive that I will tell you about Murlin: there are some really pretty areas here. They are inconveniently located hours away and you must travel 17 different highways to get to them but once you finally do arrive at these places you will appreciate them. Especially if you like farms and country scenes -- Murlin has a lot of them once you escape from Murlin's urban blight and bland, over condo'd suburban areas (I have never seen any place with more condos). I will discourage you from coming here to interact recreationally with the Chesapeake bay, however, because although there are 11,684 miles of shoreline (including tributaries), I recently heard that only 5% can be accessed publicly. In other words, you'll be okay if you have a boat that you can slide into the water at a public boat launch area but not so much if you just want to take the kids swimming. You might want to head over to Ocean City instead. That's where 3/4 of the state goes each weekend. Oh, but you'll have to cross the Bay Bridge to get there since that is literally the only option you have to cross the bay so make sure you give yourself plenty of time because bridge traffic can be horrific. I'd suggest leaving at around 3am.
No matter where you decide to venture, just be careful while you are traveling because there will be approximately 147 or so cars that will tailgate you as you attempt to reach your destination. Your best bet is to pull over and let them pass you even though doing so will add 90 extra minutes to your travel time.

My daughter recently said this about driving in Murlin and Murlin drivers/residents:

in New Jersey, another driver might make you mad. You give them the finger and/or they give you the finger and then everyone goes on their merry way. In Murlin if another driver makes you mad and you give them the finger they will be either (A) start crying (i.e. wusses), (B) run you off the road/cut you off and hit the brakes (i.e. afflicted with major entitlement syndrome or just plain nuts), or (C) hunt you down and kill you with any of the multitude of weapons they carry in their car (i.e. criminals).

That pretty much covers it/them.

These are just some of the reasons why my insomnia is no longer occasional and is instead constant.
Let this be a lesson to you: living in a place you hate will give you insomnia or maybe even something worse.

Happily, I am planning my escape and am counting the seconds until I can make it.

-SOH

P.S. One other thing about MD that disgusts me...cave crickets. They give me nightmares, no kidding.

"This Is Not The Mental Image I Had Of Spain"

2011-08-02T14:23:00.002-04:00

Here we have a photo taken yesterday (8.1.11) at Gandia Beach in Valencia, Spain.

It is prime vacation time in Spain so I guess that means that if you live in Spain you schlep to the beach and pack yourself in all sardine-like and then battle your way through a throng of other vacationing people to stand at the edge of the water for a little R&R.

I didn't think the beaches in Spain looked anything like the beaches at the Jersey shore but clearly they do.
And check out the bods on Spanish people! They don't have a care in the world! I see muffin tops and cellulite and beer bellies and grandma boobies and even some ladies who didn't feel like wearing the tops to their bathing suits.

Those crazy Spaniards...

"Reclaiming Mine"

2011-08-01T12:31:00.005-04:00

So I'm taking back this name after a year's hiatus/sabbatical...so it's about 364 days overdue. I spent the last year writing under an alias which was fun and brought a few really cool things my way but I've missed the Sharontology name...and so it's time to take it back.

Additionally, I've been weaning myself off of Facebook so taking back this blog is happening just in the nick of time for that reason as well. I'm thinking that instead of posting on Facebook I'm just going to link this blog to my FB account so it posts automatically each time I publish something here. Frankly, I'm a ~~lot~~ little tired of the whole Facebook methodology thing anyhow.
I've never really been able to fully wrap myself around the idea of feeling validated because a couple of people who are supposed to be your friends but who you never actually spend any real time with "like" something you posted. Doesn't that sound more like an exercise in How To Maintain Your Low Self-Esteem? I'm going to say something and then I'm going to sit here and wait for you to react to it and then I will feel happy. Yeah, no.

Having a blog instead of a Facebook means that I am not competing for your attention amongst your 3928 other "friends"*. If you are at this blog reading my nonsense then you are here with intention instead of by default and I "like" that much, much better.

I like to think that you enjoy something that I write or post but it's really okay if you don't: I'm still going to write and post here anyway since I do this whole blog thing mostly for my own entertainment. If you're along for the ride, that's great. If not, that's okay, too...there are a zillion other blogs out there that may float your boat better than this one does.
Whatever the case, I'm not trying to change the world with this blog.
I'm just here doing my thing, amusing myself.

*Speaking of attention, has Facebook affected your attention span?