Does someone have an upcoming birthday at work? Do something different and fun! It only takes a little bit of effort: a card, a happy birthday balloon, a quick graze-your-way-through-the afternoon potluck can make their (and your!) day.
Don’t tell the designated person in advance. This adds a layer of stealth that makes it all that much more fun. 😄
National Pie Day was January 23rd this year. I missed it. The “other” pie day is March 14. This Pi Day, the math Pi Day, is the second chance for those people who missed the first one. You know, like me. Like I do every year.
Every year for the past several years in the weeks leading up to January, my friend and colleague Sheri and I have talked for days about how we should make pies for Pie Day, how we should bring them in to work and share them with everyone. How we should get everyone else to make pies and bring them in too. How we could make both savory and sweet pies and have it be a potluck meal. How much fun it would be!
And then we didn’t do it.
So we’d start talking about the March Pi Day, the do-over chance, and why don’t we do it that day instead?
And then we didn’t do it.
Things get in the way. We’re too busy. We’re too tired. We don’t have all the ingredients. Yada yada.
This year I have been thinking about Pie Day alone, because my friend Sheri died last August. I toyed with the idea of making pies myself this year in January.
And then I didn’t do it.
As March 14th approaches, I decided that my heart wasn’t in it and I was going to let the day pass unobserved, just as I usually did. Except then my daughter came home from school and announced, “Mom, we’re going to make pies for Pi Day.”
From the mouths of babes, right?
My daughter was working in a project for her history class that required her to do a Jackie Chan impersonation. This required her to wear a gi ( full disclosure: until I googled it I was spelling it ‘gee’-my bad). Izzy did take karate years ago…for about 5 minutes. Needless to say, we did not own a gi.
So first, I put the word out to the Wells Women Facebook page but got no responses.
Next, I called my brother, who took judo and/or karate for years. “Sure, I have one,” he told me, “but I have no idea where it is,” he finished. “I know I didn’t throw it away,” he added, helpfully. No good. We needed it right away.
Then I had a sudden impulse to ask my friend Teresa. I don’t know why. I just did. And although Teresa didn’t have one, she knew someone who did.
Angela was willing to let my daughter borrow her gi, no questions asked. Because of the kindness of one friend and one stranger, my daughter’s Jackie Chan rocked!
Thank you Teresa. Thank you Angela.
🙂
My husband’s friend Bob died earlier this year.
My friend Sheri died earlier this week.
Early in 2006, Sheri became my mentor at my new job. Shortly thereafter, Sheri became my friend.
To be fair, she was pretty much everybody’s friend. She was just one of those warm, kind, caring people to whom others gravitated.
Need a hand with something? Sheri’s hand was the first one offered. Totally messed up your knitting project? Sheri would have it all straightened out for you in a snap without making you feel like you were the most inept knitter in the world (which, you know, you really were). Need support for your idea to bring in pies to work on National Pi Day? Sheri was right there, brainstorming how to help you get this awesome idea approved.
Sheri wasn’t feeling well last month, so she went to see her doctor. She thought she might get an extra day or two off from work. Instead, she got a terminal cancer diagnosis.
This is what I said to her: Does that suck or what?
This is what she said to me: Did I tell you I got a llama? (Sheri knew that I loved llamas). His name is Lucas.
She heard about a llama that needed a home, so she put a pasture in her front yard and said, “Sure, we can take him.” Lucas came to live with them and spent time with the goats that she also took care of. One day when she went out a little late to feed the goats. they ran over to her and knocked her down. Lucas the llama saw this happen. He rushed to her side and stood there with her, watching over her, until someone came to help her up.
Lucas knows that he is a better llama for having known Sheri.
I am a better person for having known her.
Some random memories of Sheri:
“They lived and laughed and loved and left.” James Joyce
My daughter and I ventured into new territory together last year when we volunteered together for the Friends of the Wells Public Library annual fundraising book sale.
We had such a good time volunteering last year that we are planning to do it again this year.
We mostly sorted and carried books to their proper spots on the tables that we helped to set up first thing in the morning. There were plenty of people of all ages there helping out along with us, including The Boy Scouts!!!
This years sale is scheduled for Saturday, August 10th from 10am -2pm and (you guessed it!), for some reason they need more volunteers than just me and Izzy. If you are so inclined and are local and want to help out, just email Susan at susan.layne1@gmail.com. Currently volunteers are still needed from 12pm-3pm on both Friday and Saturday.
If you come to help us, bring something to drink, like a big bottle of water (or maybe keep a cooler in your car with some cold drinks and an ice pack if you are planning to stay a while-hint! hint!). Also, a granola bar or two for you teenagers wouldn’t hurt (because God forbid you eat an apple or something).
If you don’t have time to help, consider coming to shop!!! Spending your money at the book sale will also be appreciated! The book sale is Saturday at the Wells Junior High School in the gym.
Remember (like Susan says): Many hands make light work!
See you there!!
We have a Japanese Maple Tree in our backyard. We brought it here when we moved from another house, and we had brought it to that house when we moved from another house. Even that wasn’t its original location though. In all, moving it to this home was its third transplantation.
From whence did it come? When our son was little, my husband or I used to walk him to and from the bus stop when he started kindergarten. While waiting for the bus, Bill struck up a conversation with the woman who owned the house on the corner of the street where the bus stopped.
Cicely had a beautiful garden, and my husband had created one too at our house, so they immediately had something in common. Cicely was from Trinidad and lived a lone in her little house on the corner. She loved her garden and took great care of it.
She had a gigantic Japanese Maple Tree that anchored her garden. One day, she gave Bill a seedling from this tree; it had about two leaves on it. He loved the tree and took it home and gave it a nice spot in our yard. This was about 17 years ago. Since then, it stayed alive but never really thrived, despite the great care and attention that Bill gave to it.
Cicely died shortly thereafter. The people who bought her house did not maintain her garden and all the plants are gone now. Except that tree. It still lives in her garden…and it still lives in ours.
It never really thrived until this year. I don’t know what is different, but Cicely’s Japanese Maple Tree has finally come into its own.
Thanks, Cicely.
My lovely daughter is turning 14 in a couple of months. We have given her a birthday party every year of her life, so there is a fair chance that she will be expecting one this year too.
What to do?
There is some pressure not only to do something that is new and different from a)what we’ve done before, but also from b) what everyone else had done before.
No easy feat, that.
We have had all kinds of parties over the years, but the Smitty’s birthday party was my favorite. We go to the theater and everything happens there: the cake, the presents, the meal, the activity (movie, duh), the goodie bags. The employees clean up afterwards. In other words, I got off easy.
I am finding that this idea is a hard sell to my teenage daughter, who has ‘been there, done that”.
We are leaning toward a …wait for it… spa party. I have a couple of ideas and potential tricks up my sleeve, so if the planets align it might all come together into a nice day for my daughter.
I passed by the TV in the common area at work and they were interviewing someone or other (I am guessing it was Gretchen Rubin) who was talking about how important it is to write down things for which you are grateful. Further, if you take the time to write a gratitude list, you will be happier.
If they say it on The Today Show, it must be true, right?
I am no stranger to the gratitude list. I have twice in years past kept an official Gratitude Journal. I faithfully (well, usually) wrote down 5 things every day for which I was grateful. I thought about doing it this year, too. . . and that’s all I did. I thought about it, then it went the way of so many of my great thoughts…just completely disappeared from my head until I saw this post’s title that I started a week ago and forgot about (hello, midlife monkey mind).
I know what stopped me: I didn’t buy The Gratitude Journal and so therefore I could not record my gratefulness! Then I stumbled upon this site:
The Simple Abundance online Gratitude Journal
Yay! Excuses begone! I am taking the plunge with the online journal. I don’t think a day goes by that I am not on the computer for something (email, Facebook) so it should be easy, right?
Right?
Here’s today’s:
| January 12, 2013 | ||
| 1 | Spicy Eggnog Coffee | |
| 2. | Sleeping until I wake up without the alarm | |
| 3. | No appointments | |
| 4. | My family and friends | |
| 5. | My new job |
You don’t have to pay to sign up if you don’t want to. Just type into the feature, then cut and paste it to a folder on your desktop.
I’m feeling happier already!
Our friend Bob showed up every weekend to bring my husband coffee—I mean, to visit his mother–at the rehab where he works. Like clockwork, he would stop in with a Dunkin Donuts coffee and an egg sandwich and twenty minutes or so of chat. He looked forward to his visits and over the years they became good friends.
Bob had been complaining of shoulder pain that was not getting better, so Bill finally convinced him to see his doctor for an x-ray. “Just go do it,” he told Bob. Finally, he did.
The pain in his shoulder wouldn’t be going away any time soon.
Bob’s pain wasn’t from a pulled muscle, or a rotator cuff injury, or even a herniated disc. Bob’s pain was from a tumor that had metastasized to his bones from his stage 4 lung cancer that he didn’t know he had.
Really? Really? He went to see his doctor to fix his shoulder and came home with a terminal diagnosis and a four to six month prognosis.
He broke the news slowly to people on a need-to-know basis. His wife. His twenty-two year old daughter. And of course, his friend Bill.
Then, he went into overdrive. He readied his house for sale. He purged all of his possessions. He didn’t want to leave anything for his wife and daughter to deal with if he could do it himself before he died. He made an exit plan that focused on the people that he cared about, and he got it done.
He never once complained. He never thought about himself. Instead, he said, “Okay, this is how it is. What can I do to make this easier for my family?”
Bob died four months after he was diagnosed. He was fifty-two.
His is greatly missed.
I was watching the second episode of the new season of The Middle on TV. In it, Frankie has just unexpectedly lost her job and decides that instead of just running out to get another (crappy) job, she is going to treat this event as an opportunity, a ‘second act’ in her life.
She decides to go back to school and learn to do something else. Something better.
Since turning 50 a few months ago, I’ve been thinking that my own second act may have started (or maybe even the third…but I digress).
I am hopeful this time around will be a bit easier. After all, this time around I have the benefit of wisdom to help me to successfully navigate what’s ahead, not to mention the love and support of my family and friends. Well, okay, I did have the that first time around too.
Thank God.
Also, this time around I live near enough to the ocean to visit it every day. As everyone knows, the ocean is the cure for what ails you.
Important lessons learned: My husband rocks. My son rocks. My daughter rocks. They all have my back every single day and really, what else matters?
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
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