Monthly Archives: February 2012

Feb20

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

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Spring is in the air.  Birds are chirping, robins flitter around, and green sprouts prick through the earth with the promise of new life. Yet, it is only the last week in February.

I remember a similar time of year 28 years ago – February 27th to be exact. The weather was just like today, and I saw my first robin of spring picking at the ground outside the hospital door as I arrived to deliver my baby. The new life would be Megan Marie Margaret Morton. 

Megan was born with a spring in her step and danced to the beat of a different drum.  She was an unusual child with a wild imagination which included her imaginary friend Jenny.  Creative, artistic, easy-going and playful would be words to describe her – a happy little girl with a big grin. Megan loved to dance, performing in her first recital at the age of 3 to the song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” The recital was held at the War Memorial Building in Trenton, New Jersey, which was a huge venue. And there was my little Megan dancing barefoot on the big stage sporting a yellow polka dot bikini…and red toenail polish. She smiled broadly during the performance and shook her lace-ruffled derriere in the finale. She was a natural on stage, and I was sure she was destined for Broadway!

Megan grew up fast and went through all of her life stages with a lot of theatrics.  Her teen years were challenging, and yet she finished out high school with flying colors as a soccer player, cheer leader and half-time dancer. She went on to college, and her graduation day found me aching with pride for the woman she had become.

Being with Megan for her 28th birthday celebration this year will include bridal dress shopping. Soon she will take on a new role as wife to her wonderful Matt and the next chapter of her life will begin. Maybe someday they will have a tiny dancer of their own.

Megan has been a joy of a daughter and has made me so proud to be her mother.  I most admire her fearlessness in taking on new adventures in life, and her no-nonsense directness in telling it like it is.  She is honest and trustworthy and never gives up – no matter what. She is a breath of fresh spring air in the midst of winter…with red toenail polish.

I love you, Meggie Marie.  Happy Birthday!

Feb14

The Bachelor – Is He Worth The Bite?

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“The Biggest Idiot on the Face of the Earth” award goes to:  Ben Flajnik.  I am so done watching that stupid show!  I am talking, of course, about The Bachelor.  At the moment I find myself asking why I allowed myself to get involved in this program with this dope and these ridiculous women in the first place.  I’ve wasted precious time I could have used to twiddle my thumbs. His choosing the shallow, self-centered vixen Courtney over beautiful, smart and funny Emily has just done me in. I’d like to smack him with that rose!

And when it comes to love, who goes scuba diving in shark-infested waters to get a rose?!?!  I mean, they bite! Or who would jump out of a helicopter into a 500 ft. cavern in the ocean to prove to this guy that they love him? Or who climbs to the highest point of the Golden Gate Bridge or hikes up treacherously steep steps to the top of a temple in Belize to have a picnic lunch?  How do you possibly descend those steps without getting a major case of vertigo anyway?  I’m stymied. These are the things I think of while I’m watching the show, and yet, like a car wreck, I can’t look away.  These beautiful women who seem intelligent and have interesting careers, cry and weep like middle schoolers over this dorky guy as if he’s their last chance on earth to find true love. They cat fight and back stab and degrade themselves. All for what? For mop-topped Ben in his rumpled clothes, day-old stubble and goofy smile?! Let’s face it, he’s no George Clooney.

I know I’m rusty, but if this is what you have to do for a little romance these days, I’m out. I know I’m getting old and have a 28-year-old track record that crashed and burned, but I wouldn’t do any of these death-defying shenanigans for anybody. I must be the most boring woman in the world because I wouldn’t dream of swimming with sharks even if I were surrounded by scuba divers with guns. I would not EVER get into a helicopter, let alone jump out of one in mid-air into the ocean.  Seriously, are you kidding me?!  I guess I’m just a big drag because most of the stuff they do on this show I wouldn’t dream of. The only thing I would be willing to do is to fly off to these tropical islands and drink pina coladas on the beach all day. I’m good with that.

I know you won’t believe me when I say I am a true sucker for romance.  I’m a pushover for every chick flick that comes down the pike. I would love nothing more than finding my Prince Charming (as my Aunt Joan would say) someday. This is surprising considering my history, but we won’t go there.  I love flowers and heart-shaped boxes of candy and declarations of true love, but I wouldn’t climb the Golden Gate Bridge to get them.  I’m looking for love to enter my life a little less dramatically.

 My Aunt Joan, in a moment of frustration, once told me she didn’t want to live without her husband Stan.  He was quiet, loving and completely devoted to her.  They were each other’s second chance at love, and they nailed it without ever skydiving out of a plane! That’s the kind of love I’m looking for – the quiet, steady kind you can’t live without, not the kind you have to kill yourself over.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Feb7

ANOTHER TIME…ANOTHER PLACE

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If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?

This question was posed by a friend on Facebook.  Someone commented:  Fear.  Another person commented: Does that stand for False Evidence Appearing Real? The first thing that came to my mind was:  Survival. 

When I was in my teens, the world was my oyster. I was full of lofty hopes and dreams and believed that they would all come true. I was sure it was just a matter of time – being in the right place at the right time. In my twenties I worked at a job that I thought was temporary to make money to pay my bills just until my real life began. I squeezed in classes and training to prepare for what I was born to do while working a full time job at something else.

I never quite got to where I wanted to be. I lost the passion or missed the boat or didn’t try hard enough or just gave up. It was such a long, drawn out evolution that I don’t really remember the exact pinpoint that deflated my visionary balloon. Instead of choosing my destiny, I let destiny choose for me.  I eventually met someone and focused in another direction. I got married, had kids and my thirties and forties were years filled with raising a loving family. My job became the resource for paying the bills and providing. It became what I would be doing for the rest of my life. I worked for my kids – lovingly and without reservation. My life was set into a pattern of family, friends, job, and responsibilities. The lofty things I used to want to do were pushed way back into the crevices of my mind.  

In answer to the question:  I did so many things I didn’t like to survive…to provide.  I like so many things I didn’t do because there wasn’t enough time or the means to do so.  It all revolved around survival, so that’s my final answer.

Every now and then the burnt-out embers of my dreams filter through the denial in my mind, and my heart flutters at the remembrance of my long ago hopes of what could have been, if only.  Maybe another time…another place.  Who knows?

Feb3

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

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What is it about a rainbow that fills everyone with hope and joy?

My mood was kind of gloomy yesterday as I took my dog Bella for her morning walk. To the left of me the sky was ominously dark, threatening a major storm, but to the right the sun was shining brightly, peaking through bunches of white clouds.  As I turned to walk back to the house, a rainbow magically appeared stretching from the dark mass, over the roadway into the sunny portion of the sky. I have to tell you my heart leapt as a broad smile formed on my lips.  The gorgeous, colorful beauty of it made me feel as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  I tried to decipher the beginning from the end as a light, misty rain began to fall.  A honking car pulled over to me and two smiling elderly women shouted out, “Do you see the rainbow?!!”  Further down the road another neighbor came running with her camera to get a better look, “Wow!” I passed two children waiting for the bus.  “Look, I pointed upward – look at the beautiful rainbow! It means it’s going to be a wonderful day,” I told them. I left them smiling and gazing upward at the mystical formation.

A rainbow is defined as an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of  light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere, taking the form of a single arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun.

Some people think of rainbows as signs from God. I just heard a story on TV last night of how a woman believes that when a rainbow appears, it is a sign that her beloved deceased husband is watching over her and their children.  She went on to say they have appeared at monumental times since his death at family milestones. I actually thought at the time I was listening to this story that it had been a long time since I saw a rainbow.  Low and behold – the next morning it came! Some even believe there’s a leprechaun waiting with a pot of gold at rainbow’s end!  As for me, I think it’s just another of God’s amazing creations that blesses us with the promise of eternal peace and happiness, giving us a reason to be joyful with the promise of good things to come.