Family – robin maderich – write-brained scribbler and crafter-on-the-loose

Christmas thoughts in May

Anyone who’s read less than half my blogs will still recognize how much I love the Christmas holidays. It’s May now. May 22nd, to be exact, and the temperature at 12:06 is still 49 degrees. I’m debating with myself as my fingers grow chill and I put tights on under my sweats, whether I should turn the heat back on. It is in the low 60s here in the house and the temperatures aren’t going to get any better outside over the next several days. And it’s raining. Did I mention that?

I’m thinking I wouldn’t be too off-base saying it’s darned chilly. In the meantime, my darling cousin Pattie is lounging outside in shorts and a tee shirt expecting a high of 91 (in Georgia, before you get too excited).

Every Picture Tells a Story

Don’t it?

I’m listening to Rod Stewart’s cd of the same name right now. It was a birthday gift, along with Gasoline Alley, Dan Fogelberg’s The Innocent Age, and a FunkoPop Dobby—actually holding a teeny, tiny sock! This past weekend, I celebrated my birthday with all my kids (three sons and two significant others). Four of us started out with dinner at Red Robin and then came home, where the other two met us.

Derek made a dee-licious Black Magic cake (coffee/chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream icing), which we consumed in small quantities after how much we stuffed ourselves with our meal. Gifts followed 🙂

C is for Constant

Like the ringing in my ears? No. Well, yeah, sure, if it helps the point.

When we are very young, the constants in our lives seem so very certain. Or maybe just my life. As a child, I had been privileged to live a life where I didn’t experience a ton of fear and insecurity. I know that was not the same for many in this country and around the world. I never expected to find myself without a roof over my head or in the middle of chaotic violence or any number of things people faced and still do on a daily basis. That would have been, in my young mind, absurd. We were fed. We played in the sun. Summers were long. Friends were everywhere. Families meant everything.

Facebook Failure

What’s a Facebook failure you might ask? If there were a picture of me somewhere on this website, you’d be looking at it. I started with Facebook some years back at the behest of my publisher. You know, need to make those social media contacts, after all, and toot your own horn about your “accomplishments”. Only I wasn’t really sure how to make those contacts or what to do once I had. Somehow, though, it happened (thanks to my daughter-in-law) and Facebook friends started to “appear”, as well as the friends I had from my real life, and family members, and oh, jeez, a whole world!

Milkshakes & Memories

On the 2nd of June, I drove up to Secaucus, New Jersey, parked in the hot parking lot, and headed on over to the train station. I felt rather proud of my confidence as I purchased my round trip ticket to Penn Station, stood with the rest of the people waiting for the train, and boarded. When my purse got stuck in the closing door, I began to question my confidence and wondered, for the merest second, if the day was going to go downhill. Seemed silly to think so, especially with the day’s plan.

Fenwick, Food and Family

Sunset on Fenwick Island, DE — Sunset at Fenwick Island the evening before I arrived–my brother Ron took this splendid photo

Stepping out onto the screened porch very early this morning, I gasped as my lungs sucked in the cloying atmosphere. Nevertheless, I closed the door to the air-conditioned house behind me and continued toward a chair. The moist carpet stuck to my bare feet when I crossed it and the freshly applied lotion on my hands transformed to the tackiness of barely dried glue in the humid, sea air. I was a little surprised by the latter and kept pressing my fingers together and pulling them apart to make sure the sensation wasn’t a product of imagination.