Margaret's Life Story Blog

Birthdays! A Story Writing Contest

2012-05-14T16:50:32Z

Here is a story telling opportunity for you!

We all have birthdays. The opportunity is to write a birthday story. It can be a story about:
Your birthday
Your child's birthday
A birthday present
Your Mom or Dad's birthday
Your spouse's birthday
A birthday party
A birthday wish
A worst birthday
A best birthday
Or another birthday tale that you have that doesn't fit any of the above

There are so many possibilities. You can submit your birthday story and Dawn and I will provide a $25 Visa gift card to the story that wins us over. Every birthday is so unique, the winning story will be decided based on the story circumstances and contents.

You must submit your story to the TellOurLifeStories.com Story Collection by noon your local time on Tuesday, May 29.

So log on (it's free) and start your birthday story today!

Log on to TellOurLifeStories.com

The Invitation by Oriah

2012-05-14T04:16:54Z

This is a poem that I ran across some years ago and wanted to share it with you all. It is by Oriah from the book The Invitation published by HarperONE, San Francisco.

The Invitation, by Oriah

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Amazing Things People Are Doing

2012-05-14T04:06:25Z

Lately in the newspaper, I've been coming across what seems like a constant stream of new, ingenious ideas. The incredibly creative things people are doing, following their instincts and putting their training and passion to use in new ways. I've been clipping articles to share.

Here's one that was in the San Francisco Chronicle last month. The title is 'Appily Ever After. It's about the woman dating Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram which was sold last month to Facebook for $1 billion. That in itself is an amazing story I am sure, but here is a woman who experiences her boyfriend coming home and talking this computer language she didn't understand. Instead of whining how he was constantly on call with server alerts and technical issues, curiosity took her on a new path to knowledge. She embraced this time as an opportunity to create her own web app that could interact with his. Read the story for the details.

Here's a clever memoir idea by A.J. Jacobs who sets himself up with a series of comic self-improvement books. The first two were "The Know-It-All" followed by "The Year of LIving Biblically." The latest one "Drop Dead Healthy" has as its focus A. J. Jacobs making himself, "the world's healthiest man." In this book he uses his wife and family as foils and partners in his quest. He checks off the parts of the body slated for improvement in 27 short chapters. Clever memoir.

And what about this one from a Swedish couple. They solved a problem of the ugly legs on Ikea beds and sofas. They invented their own colorful legs specifically designed for Ikea furniture. Their colorful appealing designs have turned into a business. Who knew?! Their frustration when they loved the simple design of the Idea brand furniture but hated the legs, turned into opportunity for them.

Then there is a man, Ivan Makarov from San Jose, a photography buff. Over Christmas vacation, he had time on his hands and posted on Google Plus, a question: Who wants to be in a book of photography? Within a day, he had received more than 500 photo submissions from around the globe! Imagine! Within 2 months entirely through the online community he had engaged with a Web designer in Switzerland, an engineer in Germany and a law office in Washington, D.C. all donating services to making the book a reality. He created a non-profit organization and all proceeds go to Kiva, a microlending nonprofit based in San Francisco. A limited-edition hard-bound book was published and copies snapped up for $200 each. It is called "Plus One Collection."

Mother's Day Gratitude

2012-05-14T01:02:17Z

As a woman who was not able to have children of my own and wanted to very much, there have been years when Mother's Day was especially difficult for me. I don't feel that way any more.

Looking upon the day as a chance to reflect on what the blessings have been, I am grateful for my home, my family, and my friends. I reflect on my friends who take delight in their children and also my friends who have children who are on a more difficult and worrisome journey where, even though the love of their parents is with them, their journey is taking them to places that worry my friends and cause them heartache even though these children are no longer children.

Certainly, I have had difficult times with my own mother. But as an adult with happiness to be thankful for, I can look upon those years with a new eye. My mother is in assisted living. I am grateful that she has good care. I talk with her still every Sunday and I can hear how she is relaxed, with the anxiety of taking care of her home behind her and her day-to-day needs being met so well. She no longer needs to sort out her pills, they bring her the right ones at the right times. My brothers and sister no longer need to go to her home and try to sort this out for her only to have her undo the sorting of the pills and then wonder if she took the right one when she was supposed to take it.

They no longer need to go over there every single Saturday as they were doing for more than 20 years, mow the lawn or, later when she could no longer drive, to take her to the grocery story and the library. Those times are behind us all and we can sigh knowing that she is in a place where she needs to be and that she is relaxed there and, quite frankly, happier than I've known her to be in many years. I attribute that to relief coming from not having to take care of so many things any more.

As for me, as a widow with work that I enjoy even though it feels relentless and stressful at times, I am grateful to be able to support myself in a way that allows me some flexibility to do things that I love, such as travel or engage in some home projects. I am grateful for my church family and the things that I learn there about community. Getting older and looking forward, I am grateful for the life I am able to have.

As you look at this day and reflect on its meaning for you, and for your family, perhaps you also have thoughts about both the good times and the not-so-good times. Maybe it is the not-so-good times that help us to be more grateful for those good ones though!

Banana Cake

2012-05-14T00:17:17Z

After dropping my sister off, I stopped and got a New York Times and a few groceries went to Pete's coffee shop and sat down and read most of it right there on the spot. It was a great thing to do on a Sunday morning. It was overcast and so nice to relax after a few days filled with activity.

Going home after that, I unpacked and took a tour around remembering the good time we had while Carol was here, wondering how her flight was going.

In the kitchen there were some rather old-ish bananas sitting in the bowl of fruit. I remembered Carol asking me, "do you ever make banana bread?" I had said that I did not. She said she didn't either because then she would just eat it all.

Well I decided to make the recipe for banana bread at cooks.com.

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 whole eggs
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
3/4 tsp. grated lemon rind
1 1/2 cups all purpose-flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together sugar, oil and eggs. Stir in lemon rind and bananas. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to banana mixture and mix until well blended. Fold in nuts. Pour into a well greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
Bake in a 325° oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.
Remove from pan and cool on rack.

Servings: 10
Yield: 1 loaf
Nutrition (per serving): 246 calories, 12.1g total fat, 42.3mg cholesterol, 225.1mg sodium, 85.5mg potassium, 30.7g carbohydrates, 1.3g fiber, 15.5g sugar, 4.7g protein, 1.2g saturated fat, less than 1g trans fatty acids, 1.4mg iron, 41.3mcg folate, 73.1mg phosphorus, 49.2IU Vitamin A, less than 1mcg Vitamin B12, less than 1mg Vitamin C, 3.5IU Vitamin D.

It turned out great and I had two warm steamy pieces right off when it came out of the oven. I recommend it!

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Carol's Visit

2012-05-14T00:07:54Z

Well, this past weekend, I spent with my sister Carol who came to visit me from Wisconsin. We had a great time. We did things that I rarely do living here. For one thing, we went out to the beach on Friday afternoon. It was beautiful weather for her visit and we enjoyed being out in the garden which was all in bloom with irises showing themselves off. Here's a picture of Carol at the beach. It's not a Southern California beach after all and you still needed a jacket but there were people going in the water up to their legs anyway and some kids playing around out there. It was a dog-friendly beach which Carol loved being the dog-lover that she is.

My sister Carol on a beautiful day at the beach

Wednesday when she got here, later in the early evening after she got settled, we walked into Fairfax for dinner at Fradelicio's Italian Restaurant. And Thursday she spent some time in the garden while I went out and bought my new car that I had to buy because I got into an accident and my other car was totaled. That is another story, but I got the exact same kind of car only a pre-owned, certified Honda CR-V. I'll have to learn to use all the gadgets and navigation system. I may end up being sorry that I got all that stuff, but it seemed like a good idea a the time and the insurance gave me what I thought was a good settlement on it. No one got hurt in the accident either which is the most important thing.

That evening, Carol and I took a longer walk into San Anselmo, meandering through the neighborhoods that evening and ate at Marinitas. That brought us to beach day on Friday, after which we went to Sausalito since it was so close to Muir Beach and toured around. We came home and had steaks that evening and ate in my new dining room, which was a treat for me since I got to use my dishes and set up the table and open a nice bottle of wine for us.

Saturday, she wanted to spend the day in San Francisco and stay overnight and see a show. Friday morning while she was taking a walk at the track nearby at Sir Francis Drake high school, I looked all around for shows we could go to and found a comedy show at Cobb's Comedy Club. I made a reservation there and also at a Kimpton Hotel as I knew they would have reasonable prices. I picked the Prescott Hotel on Post Street for the location and it looked like a good spot for us.

Saturday morning we got ready and left the house just before noontime. We checked in and were actually able to get into our room right away where we stashed our things and went down and had a little lunch. We had a friendly waiter for lunch who told us about the happy hour with the free pizza later at our hotel. Then we walked along to Union Square where they were having a Taiwan festival with live music and booths of Taiwanese food and items. We walked over to Chinatown. I had been thinking that one of those colorful Chinese blouses with the mandarin collar would be fun to have and so we started looking at those.

"You try on, you like," said the saleslady.

"OK," says Carol. "What about this one? Do you have it in another size?"

"I go check," says the saleslady. Sure enough she has them in all sizes and we find two that we like.

We walked through more stores and through Macy's where we found some jewelry on the clearance table that would go with our new outfits.

When we got back to the hotel, we walked through the club room on the fourth floor where they were going to have the pizza and our waiter was already there serving up drinks to other guests. "Hello Margaret, hello Carol!" he called out us. "You come over, have drink," he says. So we go over there and thank him again for the discount card he gave us to Macy's. We take our wine up to the room to get ready for our evening and put on our new outfits. Then we go back downstairs for the pizza. Our generous waiter says, "Oh Margaret, Carol, you look beautiful!"

He brings us pizza treats while we have a little wine and observe the other guests from all over the world. There was a British couple who were on a honeymoon. They had eloped and had just called the people back home to let them know. At the hotel we also met a Scotsman who said that the daffodils were starting to bloom there now.

Well our waiter, knowing we were going to a show at 7 p.m. comes over and says it is time for us to go. So we go downstairs and get a cab right away and are practically the first ones in Cobb's Comedy Club because we end up being so early. The place doesn't fill up either. Maybe not a good sign. When the comedian comes on after the warm-up act which is OK but not great, he turns out to be so raunchy. I am laughing at some of his routines but really, he is not versatile, and the only thing in his repertoire is sex raunch. I am not sorry when the show is over.

Back out in the chilly but mild evening, I think that we should go up to the top of Nob Hill for the view. On our way walking up the street in North Beach, a couple asks us for directions. I tell them where we are and point them toward Chinatown which isn't far. They are on their around-the-world honeymoon. So that's the second honeymooning couple we've come across in the same day.

Carol and I get a cab and go up to the Top of the Mark in the Mark Hopkins Hotel. But there is no view since it is foggy. So I don't want to pay the $15 cover charge for the terrible band that is up there only to look out at a shrouded San Francisco. We walk up the street to the Huntington Hotel and their cozy bar. We have a dessert there. Carol has chocolate cake and I have cherry upside-down-cake, both served with vanilla gelato, yum. Then we get another cab the short ride back to our hotel and get to bed.

In the morning they serve a beautiful breakfast in that fourth floor club area and we get to have a coffee and fresh fruit and pastry before Carol's trip is over and she is going to the airport.

It was a great visit.

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Milestones and the New Dining Room

2012-04-07T19:38:21Z

Birthdays are always special occasions in my mind. My friend Julie is celebrating her 40th with a dinner cruise from Vancouver to Seattle, inviting friends and family! I"ve known Julie for 15 years and last night we had a chance to get together and catch up. There she is celebrating her 40th and I just celebrated my 60th in December, both milestone birthdays. We all have these milestone birthdays. Some pass without any chatter in our mind, and others stick there calling themselves out frequently and loudly with comments like, "you're having this birthday, you are getting older, what about that?" We might look in the mirror more frequently, happen to see old pictures and remember all that's happened. We can get to comparing ourselves with others and their accomplishments, never a good thing.

One thing that my birthday did for me was push me into doing some remodeling to add some cabinets for my abundance of dishes. Since I enjoy cooking for people and having them over, I do use all these dishes, and there have been some great parties in my dining room. I wanted to spruce it up because the morning sun comes in there and it would be so nice to be able to see it.

The window will come later to let in the sun, for now the cabinets were enough of an expense and project, a closet needed to be knocked down, some sheet rock repair and cutting up the carpeting. I have no idea what to do with the floor and am open to suggestions which have been provided generously by numerous people. "Hardwood is such a hassle," "I love my hardwood," "Tile is so great and easy," "Tile is so hard and cold." It goes on. It won't be till next year that I can tackle anything more, but at this point, Julie was here last night to share with me the first dinner at my new dining room table. It was great because she was also part of all the decisions during the last time I did some remodeling after Mike died and I had to have my home different. At that time, I was driven by creating my new life without him. Tonite she is staying in the guest room I created then with it's own bath. This time, my 60th birthday drove me into this place of knowing that if I have these years of my life before me, how do I want them to look? What are the things I enjoy and don't want to put off.

I had been thinking about the cabinets for nearly 10 years, and the window. But I had always thought of it in the far corner only. Then I had a dinner and Doug and Pete came and, Doug said, "If you want the morning sun to come in, you could put the window right in the middle and then you could see it from the kitchen too." Wow, it was the perfect idea. "Oh yes, he said, if you want to remodel, just ask two gay guys to come over and they'll have all the ideas you need!" His partner Pete had some great ideas about the kitchen too.

Well not two weeks later, I saw a 40% off sale from one of those closet companies and here I am 6 weeks later with a full set of cabinets and a new dining room set. Of course part of the cabinets hasn't arrived yet and the side chairs are missing from the table. But I am happy and the rest of the stuff will arrive next week. My neighbor John took out the closet and did such a neat job it all went very smoothly.

I have the table all set for Easter brunch in two days too. How much fun to have Friday off. Julie left this morning and it was so nice to have breakfast with her and talk some more. Here I am doing a little laundry, enjoying being at home. Later I can take a walk up to the store carrying my colorful bag that Eleanor got me for grocery shopping. The garden is all ready for Sunday brunch, I fluffed it all up last weekend and I can smile as I look out the window as I write.

You can see, right above that shorter middle cabinet where the window is going to go... eventually!

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More Gems

2012-04-06T23:36:27Z

The thing that I like about these gems is that they are actually slices of life. When you read them, you can picture in your mind the people, even the looks on their faces and an image of the situation. Really they are a very short life story right there in a few brief lines.

These below are more from Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik.

He: "She's a Democratic whack-o." She: "Oh, don't you start!" Conversation of elderly couple at spring training overheard in Scottsdale.

Word of Mill Valley Tennis Club's first Artificial Parts Tournament, which organizers hope will be an annual event. Overall winner was a team called Hips, Implants & Left Knees. Nods also went to contestants with Best Limp, Most Artificial Parts, Best Sear, Most Meds, Most Operations and Least Stoic.

Note: Interestingly, on Wed. April 4 there was a story in the Chronicle hailing Marin County, where Mill Valley is situated, as the healthiest county in California according to the third annual report from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In the local Marin County Independent Journal newspaper, there was this article on Tuesday, April 3 reporting that a man was booked on suspicion of assault with at deadly weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon with bail set at $50,000. Apparently the man accused his brother of eating the last of the frozen shrimp, striking him in the hand with a billy club, then leaving the room to get his stun gun.

Back to Leah:

"He got a job with Google, so I don't want to be friends anymore. No one that young should have so much money." Young woman on cell overheard in Oakland at Jack London Square.

Teenage girl: "So, like, what exactly happened to Marie Antoinette?" Older man: They sent her down to Fresno." Conversation overheard in checkout line of Safeway on Potrero in San Francisco.

"You get back here, or I'll tell all your friends that you have ringworm!" Mother on porch to boy riding bike down driveway, overheard in Berkeley.

"You should not be having any cookies other than Girl Scout cookies. Anything else is unpatriotic." Mother to daughter gazing upon Safeway cookie selection.

Hostess: "How did you like the wine?" Diner: "It went really good with the green thing." Conversation overheard at Spruce restaurant.

"Your baggage, compared to 99 percent of the population, is carry-on, believe me." Woman to man, overheard in Glen Park, San Francisco.

Warning from San Francisco police Capt. in Monday's Bayview District Weekend Recap: "When a multi-alarm fire occurs and displaces multiple victims from their homes, if you pretend to be victims by wearing Red Cross blankets and then burglarize the victims' homes and take their valuables, Bayview officers will arrest you!"

"Mitt Romney has flip-flopped so often," said Will Durst last week at his Tuesday political gig at the Marsh, "I wouldn't be surprised if his ads ended with 'I'm Mitt Romney and I both approve and disapprove of this ad.'"

Woman: "What is H&M?" Other woman: "Hmm, it's like Walmart for the middle class." Conversation overheard on Post Street.

"We have an emergency in the antacid department." Announcement on PA system at Walgreens in Concord.

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Your Inner Introvert is Calling...Shhhhh

2012-03-20T03:40:09Z

This is the title of an article in the February issue of the Oprah magazine. The article is written by Susan Cain who wrote a new book, QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking.

Those of us who are of the introverted persuasion may sometimes want to run from our world to the comfort of our home nest where we can take a breather and catch up with ourselves. In fact, in the article, it discusses the idea that we may have been encouraged to be more extroverted as we were growing up or we may even feel worried, thinking that we are too introverted. Interesting that, in fact the cover story for Time magazine earlier this month was The Power of Shyness talking all about introversion also.

It is a great thing when you read an article and say to yourself, wow, I guess there is nothing wrong with me if I am not one to come up with the fast answer, if I am not the one who loves to small-talk at parties, if I am more the one who tends to listen rather than jump in to do all the talking. Yes, for those of us who can think better on our own rather than in a committee, this is a great relief, to learn more about the power of introversion.

Matter of fact, the Oprah article outlines some basic characteristics of introversion. Quoting and paraphrasing from the Susan Cain article below:

Talk Deeply: Many introverts find chitchat overstimulating. They seek out deep serious conversations in which they can focus on a single topic of mutual interest. And a study by Matthias Mehl, PhD, found that the happiest people have twice as many substantive conversations as the unhappiest and participate in far less small talk.

Work Alone: Scientists are beginning to recognize that solitude is a catalyst for expert performance. When you're alone says K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, a research psychologist, you can make headway on the tasks that are more challenging to you personally. Another psychologist, Adrian Furnham says, "The evidence from science suggests that businesspeople must be insane to use brainstorming groups."

Read More: Science tells us that social connections make us happier and healthier, and science is right. But there are different kinds of social connection. Reading, for instance, can be a deeply social act, putting you inside other people's minds. The introverted writer Marcel Proust called reading "that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude." Studies suggest that reading makes people more empathetic and improves social skills by helping us better understand our fellow humans.

Listen Well: Listening is a key to good leadership. New research by Adam Grant, PhD reveals that introverted leaders often deliver better outcomes than extroverts because they're more likely to consider other people's suggestions.The press, says Grant is full of advice for introverted leaders, to smile more and improve their speaking skills. But in at least one important regard, introverted leaders should keep doing what they do naturally: encouraging subordinates to take the initiative. Extroverted leaders, are you listening?

Get Away, Small Scale: An introverted psychology professor, Professor Brian Little, PhD, who gave brilliant lectures often eliciting a standing ovation would feel so spent after his lecturing success that sometimes he raced for the nearest bathroom stall to recharge. He respected his limits. Extroverts might not crave refuge as strongly, but in an overstimulating world, it's good to find what Little calls "restorative niches" to clear your mind. These minibreaks help you relax to gain acces to deeper feelings and insights.

Use Quiet Commitment to Achieve your Goals: Many introverts use a form of power so subtle that power almost seems the wrong word. Instead of taking strong stands in a loud voice, they make insightful suggestions in a gentle tone. Instead of holding forth at a meeting, they make alliances behind the scenes. Instead of calling attention to a problem, they work at it carefully and doggedly. Foothill College communication studies professor Preston Ni calls this style soft power, contending that even someone who's not outwardly charismatic can lead if she is committed to her cause. The introverted Mother Teresa wielded soft power and so did Gandhi who had been a shy man. "In the long run, says Ni, "if your idea is good and you lead with your heart, it's almost a universal law: You'll attract people who want to share your cause. Soft power is quiet persistence."

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Notice Emails Lately? Putting Words on a Page

2012-03-15T03:37:19Z

There are those of us who enjoy writing. Have you noticed emails lately? You receive emails from people who seem to be in such a hurry that they can't use spell check or write in complete sentences. It so common because we are so used to the abbreviated forms of instant messaging and texting.

IMing can be fun and really efficient at work. Email then seems so slow and cumbersome. Imagine, people can't get the words out fast enough in the message. Words get misspelled all the time in IMs and I am as guilty as the next person. But I think, oh well, I know they get the gist and we are on to the next question so immediately that it doesn't even seem worth the time to go back and re-spell the word although often I do that.

But then in a non-work personal message from, for example, one of my brothers, I read an actual email letter. It has more than 1 paragraph and it tells me something. In fact, it is telling me a story about something that happened, or something he is concerned about. It is well-written. I find myself relaxing to see all the words spelled right. It is satisfying to read something that is put together so that it can be easily understood. It is not an email that just contains a brief demand or quick question. It is an email that has real contents, it tells a story, there is a beginning, a middle and an end.

Sigh, big sigh.

There are so many good writers out there. If you are reading this, you are one of them.

It can be relaxing to put words on the page. I find that I can assemble my thoughts and think things through when I write it down and work through it on a page. Do you do that too? Some people can call that journaling but when I think of journaling, I think of something done more or less regularly. And I can go for weeks and even months without keeping up a dialog with myself about what is going on in my life. But then something may arise when I need to make a decision and I resort to writing about it and it is satisfying and a relief and it helps me establish some perspective.

I know that there are writers out there like me. The most satisfaction that I've had from my website is seeing the stories in the Collection from writers who never thought that they were writers. But you can see when they write about these memories and weave the family tales or the stories about traveling or other topics, there is so much thought there. The choices of words that are used, the feeling that comes in those stories about what was happening, the selection of topics that demonstrates what families are all about. It is a pleasure to read all those stories.

We write all the time. Showing up and writing a story about something that you care about, reliving a memory so that it lives on a page is satisfying, not only for you as the writer, but also for your family, reading through the stories to see which ones are about them, for example!

I encourage you to put those words on the page, write them down. I encourage you to relax behind those words as they flow into well-written paragraphs. You are not writing an instant message, you are not answering an email question, in this moment, you are not texting. You are taking the time to collect your thoughts about something, a topic that is appealing, a topic that you can warm up to and rest with for awhile, maybe even 30 minutes or an hour. You might rearrange paragraphs, you might strike out a sentence or two. You will get absorbed in the process of writing it down, thinking it through, deciding what you really want to say and how you want to say it.

In the end you'll be satisfied and walk away feeling that you accomplished something.

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The Eccentric San Francisco

2012-03-14T04:13:50Z

I love San Francisco.

Even though I live north of the City, I commute there several days each week. I love getting off the boat at the dock of the Ferry Building, walking in with San Francisco Bay behind me and the Bay Bridge towering off in the distance, smelling the coffee at Pete's right there near the door. Ferry riders hurry to queue up. I slide around the corner by Cowgirl Creamery's new takeout spot as quickly as I can lugging my laptop on my shoulder and move down to Acme Bread for a Rustic Roll. The bread is coming out of the ovens just beyond the counter, the smell making any sane person want to forget work, linger and eat.

Walking across the Embarcadero and the streetcar tracks, roll tucked into my purse, I travel to Pete's further down Market nearer to where I work. There a short line early in the morning and a woman often there who always hoses down the plaza in the morning wearing a yellow slicker and traveling in a motorized wagon with red hoses piled on board.

I am in the financial district and farther down Market Street where our building used to be there were lots of street people sometimes shouting or wearing sandwich boards to proclaim something or other. And always some people with signs for food. There was one fellow who had a sign that said, "give to the handsome homeless guy."

Of course, San Francisco has its eccentric side as everyone knows.

As an avid newspaper reader, I collect articles that appeal to me, usually because of their humor or because of their human interest value to me. I was clearing out a large pile of them that I had accumulated over the last 3 years. You can only imagine. I sorted them out and am still working on them, but here were a couple of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle that struck me as pretty funny and uniquely San Francisco and I wanted to share them with you. They show the eccentric side of the City.

The first one is about service animals in San Francisco that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Service Animals in San Francisco

The second was older and is about the leading edginess of the rules.
Hey San Francisco, get a life

Happy reading!

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The 6-Word Memoir

2012-03-05T01:11:57Z

Ernest Hemingway famously wrote a 6-word memoir: For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

In 2006, writers Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, publishers of SMITH Magazine had a story idea plan that had failed and needed to come up with Plan B so as they say in the blogpost that describes their start, they "quickly popped in a new idea we had been kicking around: giving Hemingway's legendary six-word novel ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn") a personal twist. We combined the classic storytelling challenge with our passion for nonfiction confessionals and dubbed it "Six-Word Memoirs." Then we called up some guys we met at a tech conference about this new thing called Twitter and asked if they wanted to partner up to send one daily short life story to anyone who followed our @smithmag feed. Four years and more than 200,000 Six-Word Memoirs later, we continue to be blown away by what people are capable of saying in just six words, the ways that others have adapted the form, and — not to get all Chicken Soup-y here — the unexpected little gems and gifts that launching this project has brought into our lives."

The project of Rachel and Larry grew into several books and more 6-word memoirs come in every day on their website.

Here are some of the ones that appealed to me at first glance, but see for yourself, these are ideas that can challenge you to think of one yourself, or work on a longer story.

Here is the 6-word memoir of the day today:
Racially mixed. Cultural mishmash. Spiritually sound.
by HippyGirl

6-word Memoirs in the Life Category

Sometimes I charleston while brushing teeth.
by zuleika

Still dress like something might happen.
by Level1

Getting older, memoir diverging from facts.
by b4idi

6-word Memoirs in the Resolutions Category

Work less, party more, run faster.
by wordwonk

I will not become THAT parent.
by K822

Act the way I wanna feel.
by cutehead

And there are thousands more in a variety of categories. Go out to their website and see for your self, or you can also browse the books they've created from their idea.

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More Funny Gems

2012-03-05T00:20:56Z

I've discovered a new repository of funny gems and wanted to share them with you. The writer is @pixiechaser on Twitter. Here are some of her more recent gems.

-Ever think if people combined Twitter, Face book, and You-tube together it would be called, You twit face!

-Why are people always trying to get into shape?? Round is a shape!

-Hardly any animal can look as deeply disappointed as a dog to whom one says "no."

-Do you know what a birthday is? When they set fire to your dessert & stand around singing while you desperately try to put out the flames.

-wants to go to Wall-Mart and when the intercom comes on, fall on your knees and scream in tears of joy, "God has spoken!!"

-I'm always disappointed when a liar's pants don't actually catch on fire.

-When I get old I'm not going to sit around knitting. I'm going 2 be clicking my LifeAlert button seeing how many hot firefighters I can get.

-It's been a rough week, but on a positive note - I didn't need any bail money!

-When i am on my death bed and all my friends and family are there, i want my last words to be."i left a million dollars in the..."

-My goal in life is to have a psychiatric condition named after me.

-Don't be so serious. If you can't laugh at yourself, call me...I'll laugh at you.

-Wonders: If you eat Smarties and Dum Dum's at the same time, does it even out?

-Boredom Tip #2: Get four pigs & label them 1,2,3 and 5. Release them into a shopping mall. Watch as security spend hours looking for Pig #4!

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Storytelling Event: March 21, Fairfax Community Church

2012-03-04T17:36:18Z

In honor of World Storytelling Day a Storytelling Event will be held at Fairfax Community Church, 2398 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Fairfax, CA, Wednesday, March 21 from 7-8:30 p.m. Local authors of stories from the book, A Collection of Life Stories will read their work. Anyone interested in listening to the stories and possibly participating in writing their own story is invited. There is no charge for the event. Folk music will also be featured as well as coffee, tea, cookies and time to talk about stories and story writing.

My Mom and Your Mom: Thanksgiving

2012-02-18T19:36:48Z

This is one of a series of stories that span the time-frame November through December of last year. During the course of our life story, there may come a time when we are caring for a aging parent. These stories revolve around a recent visit with my family and how my mom's care is unfolding in our lives.
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Arrived in Wisconsin on the 23rd of November. Mom went into assisted living just a couple of weeks before that right after her hospital stay. She needed to do this and she realizes that. She is in a good place.

Even my sister Carol says so and Carol so wanted her to be closer to where she lives on the west side. But Mom is right down the hall from the chapel where they have Mass and she can just peek out her door and see if the people are assembling. It’s just the right environment for her. And she already gained 5 pounds in the first week because she is eating now. At home taking care of herself, she would forget to eat, not a good thing.

The next day, Thanksgiving morning, I went to see Mom. Carol made her room look like a miniature Grandma’s house. Her paintings are hanging on the wall and it feels like the living room at Grandma’s, a miniature version. She has a studio. We talked, it was good to see her in such a good place. I asked her if she wanted to go out to Carol’s with me for Thanksgiving dinner. I tried to persuade her. But she didn't want to go out in the cold, they were making a dinner there and she is making friends with her tablemates. She is unsteady with her walker and doesn't like to be out in the cold after dark. She hasn't wanted to go out there for Thanksgiving for the last couple of years and this year was no different.

We went out to the entrance and she saw a woman that she knows and introduced me. Then the priest walked over. He said, “Oh Grace, you are one of our new residents, how long have you been here?” Mom thought about it for a minute and then she said, “Oh about two years.” The priest laughed and I laughed with him because she has been there about 2 weeks. Then he hugged Mom and said, “dear Grace, we are glad to have you.” I said, “I am trying to persuade her to go to my sister’s for Thanksgiving.” He said, “Grace you should go,” and Mom said, “no, I don’t think so.”We chatted some more and then I left her to go out to Carol’s.

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Carol’s in-laws, the Schmitts. They are a fun group. Carol had a table all laid out for over 20 people and my cousin Mary and her husband Larry and their daughter Sarah came by too. It was a really fun party. As they always do, we went around the table and said what we are thankful for. It is such a nice tradition. Of course the Schmitts are so funny and say some funny things too, but overall everyone has something nice to say about what they are thankful for. After dinner, Barb, Dave’s brother Dan’s wife and Carol and I did dishes for nearly three hours. It was quite a job cleaning up. But we made it fun and it all went by and pretty soon everything was all cleaned up. I stayed overnight. Dave left to go hunting early the next morning and Carol and I knew we’d begin the project to clear out Mom’s flat in order to rent it out.

Our 60th Year

2012-02-18T18:43:02Z

Well! You might be having a milestone year as I am. You might be turning 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80. Imagine where you thought you might be at this time of your life, and where you are.

Is this the picture you had of yourself as a child. Mine certainly is not!

I had imagined that I would be a matriarch like my grandma, with grandchildren and big dinners with family and small children running around the house having fun on the holidays. My picture is not at all like that. I wasn't able to have children, despite trying, I had 3 miscarriages and we never found a clear path to adoption.

Then my husband passed away, nearly 15 years ago now and I never have found the right partner to continue life with.

So, despite those twists and turns of the plot, I still did create the place where there are dinners at my house with good friends. Everyone comes often enough that they know where everything is so I don't ever need to play host because if they want something they can get it for themselves. I am very involved in my community at church which has become my church family. My brothers and sister and I have fun together when I visit Wisconsin and we do have those family parties still. As I grow older, I visit there more often and for longer periods of time. Last year, I was there for a month in December and it was nice to have my own apartment and find out what it is like to live there again, cold in the winter time! But warm around the fireplace at my brother Rick's or at Carol or Jim's on an evening.

Yes, as we go through our milestone year, I invite you to reflect and join me with some stories. Later this year, we could make another book if we have enough of them and turn them into a chapter.

How Many People Does it Take to Make A Decision?

2012-02-18T18:25:21Z

As the moderator of our little church, Fairfax Community Church. I am sometimes called up on to be a referee of sorts. Actually it's fun because everyone just has good ideas and it's more a matter of making sure that they are all heard.

We are going through this effort to create what we are calling a tagline for our church. I guess I think about it as a snapshot that tells people what the church is all about. That's a tall order for a tagline and anyone who does branding or marketing would understand more about this than I do, but about 10 of us went back and forth on email testing out ideas on each other. We came up with three:

Fairfax Community Church: Creativity, Spirituality, Community

Fairfax Community Church: Christianity on the Edge

Fairfax Community Church: Creativity and Compassion in Action

Which one do you like? You can leave a comment!

Then four of us went ahead and test-marketed these with people we know who we might like to see get more involved with our community. Fairfax Community Church: Creativity and Compassion in Action was the clear winner.

But, I had a call from someone in our congregation who wants to keep the creative process going for awhile thinking that we aren't done yet thinking of phrases to use. I know others want us to pick up and move on.

But in the interest of keeping the peace and letting everyone be heard and come up with all the ideas that we can, I am willing, at our Annual Meeting tomorrow to keep things open and let anyone who wants to be included in the process of thinking of a tagline, join the fun. We may come up with just the thing and sometimes I guess we have to be patient with the process because it's important for everyone to be heard.

At the same time, I don't want it to drag on because if it does then everyone will start getting really bored with it, those who aren't bored with it already that is, and the inertia will bog us down. There are those who abhor the idea of continuing to discuss our mission and have been ready to move on a year ago. So keeping the peace, I think one more month at this won't hurt anyone and we can put some boundaries around it to keep everyone happy to continue for a little while at least.

Who knows? Maybe we'll come up with just the thing. Although there are those who already think we've come up with just the thing. Ah well, it's a process, isn't it?

Lemon Chicken Soup

2012-02-18T18:23:23Z

OK so it's wintertime. It's cold outside and it's good to be warm inside with something good to eat.

The other day I was working at home and there was a chicken in the freezer. I took it out and didn't want to wait all day long for it to thaw before I roasted it. So I ran the water in the kitchen faucet until it was as hot as it could get. I got a big bowl and put that frozen chicken in there still wrapped in the plastic it came in. After an hour or so soaking in that hot water, I could easily get the plastic off. After removing it, I again ran the hot water over the chicken. Another hour, visiting the kitchen I found it was nearly thawed. The third time running the hot water, directly into the cavity of the bird, ti was thawed in no time. So it probably took 2 hours or so, give or take.

I put the chicken into a roasting pan and had meyer lemons from my lemon bush that I needed to use up, so I cut them up and stuffed quarters of them into the cavity of the chicken, I used 2 lemons and then spread the rest of the quarters around the chicken, filling up the roasting pan with about 2 inches of water, or so.

I sprinkled it with salt and pepper and some spices, herbs de provence and some other spice combinations from the The Spice House, Milwaukee, WI, namely Walker's Point Seasoning and Mr. Spice House Seasoning. But you can use any spices you want or just salt and pepper would be fine too.

I let that chicken roast for about an hour and 15 minutes, or it could have been an hour and a half at 350 degrees. I had meetings that day and I lose track of the time. Anyway, the chicken is done when the drumstick is loose.

I took it out of the oven and lifted it out of the roasting pan to rest for a bit. Then I put the liquid into a bowl and stuck it into the refrigerator. I cut the chicken off the bone and put the bones into a bowl, discarding the lemons and put the bones into the refrigerator too. The roast chicken was yummy with a salad for a late lunch. That evening I took out the bones, put them in a pot with water to cover and brought them to a boil and then turned down the heat to simmer. As I was talking on the phone to my brother and later to my sister and doing my ironing, the simmering was happening. After a couple of hours, before bed, I drained the bones in a collander and put the liquid in a bowl and put that into the refrigerator.

The next day after work I took the two bowls out of the refrigerator. A layer of fat had risen on each bowl and I scraped that off, then combined the two bowls of what would become chicken soup into one bowl and heated it up. After it heated, I strained it again so that it was a nice clear broth.

At this point you could do anything with it, add vegetables for a vegetable soup, or put the remaining chicken pieces in and some noodles or whatever you prefer. I used the remaining chicken and some carrots and celery and had soup for a few more days so that one chicken made several good meals.

Gems from Leah Garchik, Public Eavesdropping

2012-01-23T00:45:51Z

There is a columnist in the San Francisco Chronicle. Her name is Leah Garchik. She includes a part called Public Eavesdropping.

Below are some of her gems.

"I'd actually rather be drinking wine than doing yoga." Person in parking lot at Crissy Field.

"If you don't stop crying for no reason, I'm going to start deleting Mickey Mouses." Father to young son, overheard at a Pleasant Hill car wash.

"I had on a Vanderbilt T-shirt under my Harvard sweatshirt. I realized if I just had a Cal Bears cap, I could round out all the colleges that didn't take me." Man walking near the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

"We're going to name the baby Zen. If it's a boy or a girl, it won't make any difference." Pregnant woman on Valencia Street.

"Look, I don't think Dad has dementia. He's just fed up." Woman on cell phone, overheard at Whole Foods in Napa

"I don't like guys with prettier hair than mine or cell phones that are smarter than I am." Woman in lobby of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

"What size pants do you wear? 33? 34? You're fatter than that." Man to friend, perhaps former friend, on cell phone on BART.

"A lot of pretty women are downgrading to ugly guys." Young man to young man overheard on BART.

"Look, they cut all the green off the trees!" "It's fall man, the leaves fall off then." Conversation between two teenage boys overheard in Berkeley.

"How will the pants fit after lunch? Burger and fries or just burger?" Woman in Banana Republic dressing room, overheard in Walnut Creek.

A Funny Thing Happened at the Hardware Store

2012-01-22T17:34:08Z

I went to the local hardware store yesterday to purchase 5 bags of steer manure for my garden flower beds. It was in between rainstorms and I only had 2 more flower beds to go to get them ready for spring.

I was standing in line and there were two other guys ahead of me, one said to the other, "Oh yes, I just went out to the garage to get something and before I knew it, I was cleaning out the whole garage." He looked at me, and I said, "one thing leads to another!"

When it was my turn, I ordered the 5 bags. The cashier had to pick up the announcement system and she said, "garden center, we have a pickup, 5 bags of EB Stone steer manure." Then the other intercom chimed in, "OK, we have to get the cow ready." Everybody in the checkout line laughed.

So I got in my car and pulled it around to the yard and the guy was loading up the bags in a pull cart. They started loading them into the back of my old and faithful 1998 Honda CRV. He had six bags on the cart. I had a fleeting thought that if I let him load all fo them I would get one bag for free. But my conscience won out. I said, "oh wait a minute, I only ordered 5 bags." I showed him my receipt.

I said, "for a moment I was thinking I could get away with one bag for free."

He said, "taking one look at you I know you would never be able to live with yourself!"

Well, I told this story to the guys in my meeting at work. We were all on the phone and someone mentioned something about how when they were small, they never could get away with lying.

I said I had a story about that and told this one. Of course, being a bunch of guys this resulted in comments about crap and getting away with stuff and "the cow never would have known."