Category: He and me

Trying snowshoeing

by Karen, posted in fitness, He and me

I have never pretended to be the outdoor type. My husband, on the other hand, IS.

I recently became brave and asked him if he’d like to try snowshoeing with me. He agreed, so we both got some shiny new snowshoes for Christmas. In November.

It took a while before we had some snow (and before I had some courage) to try them.

After we got about 16 inches of snow at camp, I had no excuse.

Bill was a skier, so I thought this would be a piece of cake for him.

And so it was.

I, however, was a dramatic failure at skiing and never, ever want to that again.

Snowshoeing reminded me of skiing so I think that was where my, um, lack of confidence originated.

I decided to do the thing I thought I could not do, so to speak.

I’m so glad that I did!!
It was so much fun!

It didn’t take very long to get the hang of it and I can’t wait to try it again!!

Lesson: Be brave! You CAN do it!

What have you been putting off trying because of old limiting beliefs?

The great outdoors …

Bands with husband

by Karen, posted in Date night, He and me, local fun

This week we were very happy to get to see some of our favorite bands from back in the day. In general, I am not a big fan of going to Boston (especially if it involves driving) for bands, but in this case, there were no Maine or New Hampshire options (at that time) so it was Boston or nothing.

For the first show, my sister- and brother-in-law helped make it less painful by offering to drive, and my mother-in-law let us stay over at her house (MUCH CLOSER TO BOSTON) so we didn’t have a two-hour ride home to Maine in the wee hours. For the second show, we took the Downeaster ($70 or so round trip with the meager-but-appreciated AAA Discount) that took us practically door to door. NOTE: One thing about the train…the phrase, “Hell is other people” kept coming to mind on the way down. ‘Nuf said.

With these deal-breakers taken care of, we were off.

 

The first show was at the Blue Hills Pavilion. The line up was Jason Bonham, Cheap Trick (my husband’s favorite band) and Foreigner (their 40th Anniversary Tour).

The second show was at the TD Boston Garden. The line up was Peter Wolf (of J. Geils Band fame) and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (coincidentally, also their 40th Anniversary Tour).

We decided to rate the bands in order of how much we liked their shows.

He:

  1. Cheap Trick (She: No surprise there! It’s been his favorite band since he was, like, sixteen  years old!) 
  2. Foreigner (Surprise! I didn’t think that was going to be number 2.)
  3. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Tom Petty was a little uneven. Sometimes you just gotta give the people what they want–like Foreigner did.)
  4. Peter Wolf (I would have liked to have heard more from him.)
  5. Jason Bonham (He was really good!) 

She:

  1. Foreigner (As I was listening, I realized that I knew the words to every single one of the songs! Okay, except for one. Also, so many of them correlated to important people and events from my past that it was like watching an episode of “This is Your Life“.)
  2. Cheap Trick (I have come to love Cheap Trick, a band I loathed in my teens. I didn’t know as many of the songs they chose to sing this time, which was a little disappointing, but they were still great) 
  3. Peter Wolf (I saw J. Geils Band many times in my younger years, and one of the things I loved best was watching Peter Wolf dance. He’s as great as he ever was! And he sang several of my favorite songs.)
  4. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Okay,I am sorry to say that TP came in 4th out of 5! What a letdown. He did sing a couple of my favorites, but many of his choices were obscure, and I could have done without the extended instrumentals and the dragged out introduction of the band members. Tom, maybe you would have had time to play “Here Comes My Girl” if you spent a little less time on those other things…Just sayin’. Reference: “Give the people what they want” said by he, above.)
  5. Jason Bonham (Wasn’t as bad as I expected. I didn’t want to leave or anything.)

That’s it! How would YOU rank these five bands? Comment below!

 

Who am I? RESULTS!

by Karen, posted in family, He and me, health, no fear

So, the results are in! No big surprises to be found here. I am happy to know what I am made of, so to speak. I am grateful to my husband for giving me this gift. No Atlantean heritage in this mix. No Lilliputian. Just about a 50/50 split between Southern Europe (Italian) and Northwestern European (Irish/Scottish/Welsh) and a few other things thrown in.

 

Here’s what I didn’t expect: today I got an email informing me of relatives of mine that they have found. About a dozen fourth cousins. If they are fourth cousins (otherwise known as first cousins twice removed, per the email), are they really related to me?

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Like, my coworkers might be more closely related to me.

Or, the crows outside my window.

Just a thought.

Dance this mess around

by Karen, posted in He and me, local fun, Marriage, relationships

My husband and I went to see The B52’s last night. As far as date nights go, this was a great one. We stopped to eat on the way to the show at Margarita’s. I got a Blood Orange Margarita, and it was AWESOME. Note: There is no photo of the margarita because, sadly, I forgot my phone in the car and I my husband thought I couldn’t go the duration of the meal without it, so of course I had to prove him wrong. 🙂

Anyway, The show was great.

Except for the opening band, which was meh, therefore they shall remain nameless.

The show start time was 8:00pm, but The B52’s didn’t come out until 9:15pm. By then, it was pretty hot in there. Fred (one of the lead singers, for the uninitiated) made note of this, and then disappeared for a few songs. We thought we’d lost him, but the ceiling fans came on and thankfully, Fred came back out.

The played most of my favorite songs, including “Roam“, and “Deadbeat Club“, which is my current favorite.

They did an encore of three songs: “Planet Claire“, some song I never heard of with a telephone number in it, and (finally! finally!) “Rock Lobster“.

When they played “Dance This Mess Around“, and I was, you know, doing that, I had a moment when I realized that I was doing this same exact thing about 35 years ago. I was singing at the top of my lungs, dancing, and throwing my hands in the air like I just didn’t care (nod to Cameo‘s song), at some club in Boston that I can’t recall the name of.  It was a glimpse of how it is to live in Einstein Time, and it frikkin’ rocked.

I had so much fun (as I talked about my Metaphysical Monday video this week)! The best part? The B52’s were having so much fun too! We’ve all heard of bands that are not in love with the idea of playing the same songs over and over, the “fan favorites”, at their concerts, but this band didn’t get that memo.

If you ever have the chance to see them live, GO!

This is the best photo my iPhone could get of them, and it’s awful, but it’s all I have, so I’m posting it here at the end.

Who am I really?

by Karen, posted in He and me, health, italian, love and marriage, Marriage, no fear, relationships

My husband was very inspired this year with his choice of birthday gift for me.

He got me the MyHeritage DNA kit.

 

Me: How did you know I wanted to do that?!

He: Because every time a commercial for it came on or anyone was saying they did it for the last year, you said, “I want to do that!”

Me: Oh. Right.

Lesson: Repetition is your friend, married people. 🙂

Anyway, this will be the gift that keeps on giving, because I decided to write about it. I did the (pretty easy) test the next morning. The directions said not to eat or drink anything for an hour before you do it, so first thing upon arising was my best bet. Sure, I had to defer my first sip of morning coffee for twenty minutes, but it’s a small price to pay! I am going to find out what I’m made of!

Fear: What if I’m not really Italian?

I am feeling the fear! I am doing it anyway!

Stay tuned.

From sh*t list to hit list

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, He and me, local fun, movies

I have recently written about my evolving taste in movies. That got me thinking about some other things that I like now that I used to hate.

Here are a few:

  1. Fish. With the exception of canned tuna, I hated fish. This may have stemmed from when I was young and mom made fish sticks for supper, which I tried to decline. No way. Food on the plate? We ate it. Whether we liked it or not was not even a consideration. We were a family struggling to get by on food stamps. Anyway, she made me sit at the table for hours, telling me I couldn’t get up until I ate it all. I got it down drowned in a quart of ketchup, while sitting on the floor under the table in protest. After I moved to Maine, my husband told me I had to start eating fish, because, you know, it’s the law. I have heard you have to try something you dislike 17 times before your tastes change and you actually like it (“He likes it! Hey, Mikey!). Now I love fried whole clams, haddock, cod, calamari, and I’ve even been known to eat some of Gorton’s crunchy fish sticks (without ketchup!) on occasion.
  2. Margaritas. I used to make fun of women who went out for a drink and chose a margarita. Hello? Classic cliché! And then I tried a strawberry hibiscus margarita at Pedro’s in Kennebunk. Oh. My. God. May I just say that now I am a cliché–I mean a fan?
  3. Christian music. I never paid any attention to my friends who said, “Hey, you should listen to it. I bet you’d really like it!” And then my daughter started putting KLOVE on in the car. And I started listening to it. Guess what? I really like it! Hey Mikey!
  4. Exercise. No, wait. I still hate that.

margarita
Pineapple Coconut Margarita at Side Street Cafe

I will leave you with this look back at Mikey. Enjoy!

 

Message from hawk

by Karen, posted in Animals and pets, He and me

Red tail hawkI was coming home from an author talk and my husband (who was driving) noticed something by the side of the road.

He: “Hey, did you see that?”

No, I didn’t see it. I never see anything.

Me: “No, what is it?”

He: “A hawk.”

Me: “No way!”

Feeling bad that I missed it, he banged a U-y and we went back to the spot where he saw it. And there it was! A hawk, standing in a puddle on the side of a busy road in Lexington (I think-did I mention that I have no sense of direction?). Like she was waiting for me to come back. To let me see her.

He waited for a long time.

And then I did see him! He posed for pictures! He turned to let me get a shot from every angle!

 

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Me: “What kind of hawk is it?” 

He: “A red tailed hawk.”

Me: (I knew he’d know. He always knows that kind of stuff. Makes me proud. 🙂 )

So now I know enough now to know that there was a message for me here.

I went to my go-to website for such things (lilysongbird.com) to find out what the message was.

Here’s what it says:

HAWK signifies being caught up in too many details, so step back so you can get a greater perspective on the situation. Stay alert and focused on the task before you, eliminating as many distractions as possible. Spend some time observing and studying the situation and when it’s time for action, make it quick and decisive. Pay close attention to your surroundings, as you’re about to receive an important message. Be aware of any personal or psychic attacks and be prepared to defend yourself. Stop trying to change others or the situation and work instead on accepting things as they are.

Boom.

I give it three months

by Karen, posted in He and me, love and marriage, Marriage, relationships

When my husband and I first became interested in each other, I wasn’t all in. I thought he was too good-looking, and that we’d have fun for a while, and then he’d get tired of me. Where did I get this idea? Oh, from many (many, many) of my past relationships.

   Me: “I give it 3 months, and then you’ll be on to your next girlfriend.”

   He: “No way! That’s not going to happen!”

   Me (to myself): Yeah, right.

Anyway, now, there have been one hundred three months. He encouraged me to take the leap, and we got married 25 years ago. This is a picture that my brother took of me and Bill in 2014 when we renewed our vows to each other at St Ann’s Episcopal Church.

photo by Patrick Maffeo
Take the leap

Does it look familiar? It might if you’ve seen my book! Pat took a lot of photos that day, one of which I used for the cover of  One Brave Thing.

 

So, it just goes to prove that sometimes, if you trust what you’re feeling, everything will work out okay.

🙂

My first 100 Days of Grace

by Karen, posted in Angels, family, friends, good grief, He and me, Meditation
I was wondering once again this past Sunday why the heck I had chosen Grace to be my word–or more accurately, Grace had chosen me to be its person –this year. Brave, my word last year, was a grace rockgreat word! A word you can sink your teeth into! Get your mind around! Get a grip on! Grace is…not. It’s elusive. Ephemeral. Unknown. Unfixed…kind of like me.
So my old friend Jane and my new friend Lisa and I were talking about this on Sunday, when they told me about the 100 day project they had started. They invited me to join, so I did.
Every day I say:
Thank you, God. I am in day ____ of my first 100 days of Grace.
Here is what’s happened during my first 3 days of my first 100 days of Grace:
  • Day 1 Grace: Jane introduced me to Lisa, who told me about her company Cosmic Tonic and T shirts that say Limitless on them (written in a special way). The song Limitless had been in my head all morning, and I had posted a link to it on one of my Facebook pages, The Metaphysical Nurse, right before I met her. (I know, right?!)
  • Day 2 Grace: Bill, my husband, finished reading the first book I wrote and he told me he loved it.  One thing about my husband: He never lies, especially not to spare my feelings. YAY!
  • Day 3 Grace: The song King of the Road was in my head, and a brief flash of a memory of my mother singing it. A visitation? It felt like it was. A gift. The 20th anniversary of her death is this month, February 29.

That’s it so far.

Consider trying this for yourself!

**Here’s a clip of the song King of the Road being sung by one of my mother’s favorite singers, Dean Martin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZWvi0MaIZs
**Here is the link to some of the many posts I’ve written about My One Word. https://kwrites.com/category/my-one-word/
**I gave meditation a hundred days last year. Here is the link the Give it 100 website, which really helped me succeed: https://giveit100.com/

Tidying up

by Karen, posted in books, He and me, Marriage

You may have heard of the book that I am reading: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo. Heck, you may even be reading it yourself.

I found it on audio for free (after I bought the hardcover!) on YouTube. I sent the link out to my virtual book club (we’ve only actually read 2 books together; this would be number 3) in case anyone else wanted to read it and talk about it. Or more importantly, to read it and then to act on it.

I decided to act immediately upon finishing a section. I finished the first section that said to start with your clothes, so I did.  It took me about half an hour to empty out all the closets and drawers and make the big pile of clothes.

It took me about 11 hours to discard everything I wasn’t keeping and then to put back everything that I was keeping!

Do not let this dissuade you! Full disclosure: I did try on a lot of things before I decided to keep them. Even if the item did “spark joy” (criterion from the book), I didn’t feel joyful in too-tight pants.

After I emptied my clothes out, I took a picture of the pile and texted it to my husband (the husband who had brought this book to my attention once or twice before I bought it), who was at work.

I didn’t receive a reply.

Me: Did you get my text?

He: Yes.

Me: Well?

He: Well, what?

Me: I thought you’d be glad to see that I started on the tidying up.

He: No! It was terrible! Looking at that made me anxious all day!

File under ‘be careful what you wish for’, husband.

🙂