Beneath the Wraps

I don’t much care for reality shows.   As a whole, I think so many started out as bogus – though there are some really good ones now.   I don’t watch the Biggest Loser, but that is at least believable as being real. So many of the first reality shows introduced were “staged”.           Over five years ago TBS advertised one called “He’s a Lady”.   I would roll my eyes every time I saw the commercial.   And yet, I must have been intrigued.   Must have had some sense of morbid curiosity.   Why would a guy subject himself to follow in a woman’s footsteps for 6 weeks or two months or whatever it was.   How about a quarter of a million prize money?   Or the “false” advertisement which drew them to enter in the first place?           There were at least eleven candidates who had applied for “The All American Man” contest – prove to the nation just who w...

          I started reading to Jenna when she was still inside of my womb.   I would place earphones on my stomach and play Classical music for her.   I would hold a flashlight over my belly and turn it off and on and explain to her weather it was dark or light.           Roland read to her and her brothers read to her from newborn to preschool.   Jenna grew up reading books and has loved books ever since.   She especially likes books that encourage imagination or anything non-fiction that helps her learn.   I think that is SO AWESOME!           Of course I have to thank the library system for setting up the Beehive Nominee’s incentive program (or summer reading or whatever else is offered) as Jenna is always on a mission to complete the program and have her card filled ASAP.        ...

Roland and I had been married a couple of months before we met Bill Jolly – who totally lived up to his last name as he was always smiling and joking and overall really did appear to be happy.           He’d come to choir practice and often joke with the chorister.  It was rare that he presented himself as a person who was ever serious.           Overall he didn’t seem like my sister’s type, but I liked him and wondered if she would too.  Yet in the back of my mind it seemed like he had a wife.  I’m not sure why I thought that.  I never saw him with anyone.  It wasn’t until much later on that I learned his wife was homebound for much of the time due to failing health.  When she did leave the house it was usually to go to the doctor or hospital.  I would visit her periodically. It was disheartening to see her in such poor health as she was younger ...

Jenna and I went downtown to meet our new in-laws at a Bridal display.  While we were waiting, Jenna stood over the air vent and let the air blow under her dress.  She held it down as the air blowing had revealed a little too much.  So her dress would puff up making her appear round in the middle - like a nesting doll sort of.  When she left the air vent, she was back to her normal skinny shape.  And I thought: "How cool would that be if we could just stand over something and when we walk away all of the rounded middle of ourselves could simply vanish away?"  How wonderful it would be to lose weight the instant we put it in.

          I am younger than the rotary phone though older than the cordless and definitely older than the cell phone.   Roland often used to get unwanted possessions from his clients – one being an old rotary phone.   He brought it home one day and called the boys together.   There was an extra jack in Tony’s room and Roland hooked the phone up and brought it out into the hall and told the boys that they could leave it in the hall so that they would all have access to it and wouldn’t have to run into the kitchen every time. I remember the three boys standing around the phone – first with their eyes on the phone and then exchanging puzzled looks with one another until finally one of them asked, “How does it work?”   Until then it hadn’t even dawned on me that what had been very routine for me growing up really was a foreign object to these boys who were not much younger than the cell phone.   How would...

I was thirteen when I got my first period.   I was with my family – on vacation.   Ugh!   I told my mom that there was blood in my pants.   She explained what was taking place inside my body and how I could look forward to this special gift each month.   Yuck!   Seriously.   Wasn’t at all excited about having this piece of womanhood.           I didn’t receive my second period until two and a half years later.   I was at school thinking, “Okay, this is not so bad.   Every two and a half years.   I can handle that”   But there was no two and a half year wait for my next one.   They started coming in perhaps every five or six weeks.   Soft.   If it weren’t for the disgusting smell, I could have probably gotten away with just a band-aid for my entire period.   I have never been a heavy bleeder.   I have never been regular.      ...

                   Aside from disposable dishes, I am really quite grateful to the inventor of the Crock Pot.   What an awesome invention!   To be able to throw in food and have it done by dinner time!   And the meat is always tender and juicy and oh, so good.   So much better than the oven.           The first crock pot that I have recollection of was a red orange one my mom had purchased shortly after this wonderful item was introduced to the market.   We didn’t have the option of removing the incert as we have today.   There was no insert.   It was just one unit.   The cord went in the sink as we attempted to clean it without getting the cord wet.   (What a chore that was)           Today crock pots come in assorted styles and gadgets.   Roland and I ...

I would like to thank the inventor (or inventors rather) who created disposable dishes.   Paper plates and cups, plastic flatware, aluminum pans – though not yet invented for the stove top – at least that I know of.           I don’t mind doing dishes – but I don’t thrive on it.   It does irk me quite a bit when I know I’ve done the dishes – lots of them – and less than four hours later the sink gives one the appearance that I haven’t done dishes all week.   Where the heck do these extra dishes even come from?   Usually it’s just me and Jenna.   Or me.   In the morning and after work it is Roland, Jenna and me – well not every night.             Biff works graveyards – and although he does cook at odd times during the 24 hour day – he doesn’t use that many dishes.   Two – maybe three.   I think I have dish gremlins that break into my house.  ...

          My mom has always had a lousy sense of direction – at least since I’ve known her.  Improper medication or improper amounts due to failing health and aging does not help matters.  She’s always been an okay driver – not exceptional.  Perhaps even good at one time – now?  I think my mom behind a wheel is rather a scary combination.           But then again having me behind the wheel when the sun is streaming over dirty windows – also scary.  And to top it off – send me to unfamiliar roads.  It’s like Lucy Ricardo driving Ethel Mertz.  (For those of you who have no clue what that statement even means, I encourage you to go to YouTube and click on “I Love Lucy” – any episode, doesn’t matter.  It should help you to understand my comparison)           Mom and I have actually had quite a few Luc...

          When I was twelve I took a family history class – only it wasn’t actually called Family History.   At that time it was referred to a genealogy. (Boring name; must be why they changed it) I was the only youth in the class.   The instructor was early 40s – possibly late 30s.   The rest of the class members were all over the age of 50. Things were done on legal size paper.   There were Xerox machines (photocopiers) and pens.   No PAF, Ancestry.com, Google, etc.   I would imagine doing family research is so much easier now than back then. My instructor had been raised in a foster care system and had always had a strong sense of getting to know and understand her family.   It was a very long process. I understand why family history is so important to her.   To have a connection.   And when she did find connections, the discoveries were great.   As an adult she learned that she h...

I so love it when nature seems to work against itself.  I’ve received emails featuring dogs or tigers raising pigs  ; or orphaned duckings accepted and raised by a non-biological mother.  I’ve read miracle stories on animal survival and unexplainable compassion.  And I think that it is totally great!           Recently my brother introduced me to the Blog “Raising my Rainbow”  which I have checked periodically and tried to follow from the beginning.  In a few posts the blogger has sought out advice for book recommendations.  And I have checked out various recommendations that have been left in the comment section.  My favorite book thus far is “And Tango makes Three” by Justin Richardson  and Peter Parnell – a charming book about two male penguins at the Central Park zoo who found themselves enjoying the companionship of one another and tried to imitate what the other pengui...

         Perhaps that seems a lousy comparison.   And I am not actually comparing the dog to the human being – I am comparing the emotions one may go through as he or she searches for a pet as opposed to searching for a family member.           I do have examples for both.   We have had two dogs that have come to us in their prime.   Both during different years and in different cities.   Both had/have a sense of adventure beyond our fenced yards.   And both have managed to escape – though it has been quite a mystery about HOW they escaped – especially the first one.           The one who lives with us currently has always been nearby and often returns home on his own.   The first one was a happy wanderer who was on a mission to find his boys – he had claimed them before they claimed him.   He loved our boys and woul...