I have decided that I am no longer going to overestimate others. I give people way to much credit and assume way to much virtue.
I have also decided that I am going to stop underestimating myself. I have a wealth of life experience and trusting that now is one of the most important things I can do for myself.
3 April 2019
I had dinner with my son last night. He was uncharacteristically late so I had a little time to wander around one of my old neighborhoods.
I lived in what was called New Town (now called Boys Town) back in the early 80s. I was an occasional leather punk, with occasional blue hair. We hung in what was then a little bar, called Berlin. It’s twice the size it was now. It was within staggering distance from my home on Racine.
2 April 2019
I love it when my ethics get me out of doing something I don’t want to do.
We have a dark-as-ebony fragment from the former Chicago Stock Exchange building. It lives in my office. It’s not on the sales floor-on purpose.
The Stock Exchange was demolished in 1972. It was designed by famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. There are fragments of it all over the nation. I have seen them at museums in Milwaukee, Minnesota, and New York.
Some Presidents Get the Han Solo Treatment.
1 April 2019
Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and sometimes Lucretia Mott get all the suffragette love. But we had a Chicago woman who was just as invested in the future of women in America.
Myra Bradwell was the first woman admitted to the Illinois bar, founder and publisher of the Chicago Legal News, largely responsible for Mary Lincoln’s release from Bellevue Place and a suffragette.
She’s buried here in Chicago at Rosehill Cemetery. Last weekend, I left her a little token to thank her for all her work.
Every woman must remember we’ve been allowed to do this for less than 100 years. People lose rights all the time. We must be vigilant and use it or we could lose it. OWM fear us, and they should.
1 April 2019
So I have a little collection of deities that live on my window sill. I add to it from time to time. Some might wonder about the wisdom of courting both Ganipati and Kali, but for me, destruction is an obstacle remover.
My latest acquisition is Lakshmi. The goddess of wealth. I need all the help I can get! I found a very pretty one online. When it arrived, it had some damage. The form was okay, but a few of the blossoms at her feet were broken. Continue reading “New Underestimate the Power of a Diety”
31 March 2019
My daughter passed away early this month.
A dear friend remarked “the lion ate the lamb and then stayed.” For me, the lion ate my lamb and then stayed. Every winter that lion tried to get her. She was so close again this year.
Grief is a unique and deeply personal experience. I have been writing in a journal and will share as I transcribe my horrible handwriting. I will lurch forward and back; I expect this will, too.
30 March 2019
One of the things I remember the most is Clair asking for a “long hug.” I was never much of a hug person. The cursory one is usual treatment; it generally brought me nothing. It was like an air kiss.
But for her, I was always happy to accommodate the “long hug.” I’d take her close and hold her tight for a long time. It was very sweet and simple. The stillness that would come after a while was one of the sweetest things I have ever felt. It is something I regret not doing much more in her last days. Continue reading “What to Call This? Nothing…”
We all struggle with a lot of things-sometimes the same thing over and over and over again. I have found pneumonic devices to be helpful tools. Here are some of mine.
Batteries always befuddled me; the ridiculous diagrams were no help at all. One day “smooth to spring” came into my head!
“Stationary” when you are talking about something that is not moving. “Stationery” when you’re talking about paper. A good way to remember this is that stationery has an “e” like envelope.
Cavalry and Calvary are often an issue with me. Am I’m sending Pulaski’s horses? Or am I sending a hill in Jerusalem?
My trick? “Cava” is a sparkling wine served at celebrations like the Kentucky Derby. Winning horses get champagne at the finish line. So, Cava equals cavalry!
“Take a left!” for a quick second I have to think. Even after decades of walking I have to decide. I do not know it instinctively! I probably never will either. So, I think about holding a pencil. There’s also the Smashbox reference about her “finger and her thumb in the shape of an L….”
The MaryAnn docked at the Chicago Ave. bridge.
It’s still a working river here!
When this arrived in my Facebook feed late last year, I am sure I did not feel the warm fuzzy feeling that FB had intended me to feel.
I was rather horrified. 10 years? I had really been using Facebook for 10 years?
I started to think about the clicks and the time. How many? How much? I can’t imagine. Each click a drop in the bucket of the Facebook flood. Even the clicks to hide an ad enriched their “engagement numbers.” In a small, but very real way, I was part of the problem.
That, and many people use FB as a blog anyway. Who hasn’t see a 1,000 word post and said “TLDR” to themselves? Or you have that one friend who has denigrated into a ranty old person.
Continue reading “10 Years? Really?”
Chicago Mobster History, on a quiet Chicago street.
Living up to its name, don’t you think?
I am in love with this color combination!
