Month: December 2015

Dear Badfish

Although I have had a bunch of wonderful new blog help from my dear friend Karuna (https://livinglearningandlettinggo.wordpress.com/) I still don’t know very much about what I am doing with this blog, or if there are “rules” I’m breaking but here goes.
I made this comment on the wonderful Badfish2 blog about thongs and the Maldives:
31 December 2015 at 01:01

sorry about the flu but hoping some beach love is re-awakened!

I was to attend a fancy Maui beach wedding once which required “formal beach wear”. Found an appropriate dress but not shoes so shopped several high-end boutiques in Carlsbad, CA asking sweet young sales girls if they sold “beaded thongs”, meaning, of course, the shoe variety. Hey, I thought a flip flop with beads could pass for dressy!

The embarrassed looks on the faces of these young women, thirty years (as well as pounds) my junior, were confusing…but priceless once I figured out what they were picturing as they looked at me (and not at my feet!)

Thanks for the vicarious visit to the beach.

…and it was suggested I put the story in my blog. So there it is. The last time I told that story was as an icebreaker at the ritzy rehearsal dinner for a wedding I officiated. (The couple’s parents were Jewish and Christian, but my couple wanted a Buddhist-like wedding.) I figured if I could get all the newly-introduced parents to laugh together, things might go better the next day. Yeah, I know. I’m a martyr…but hey, it worked.

Badfish wrote that he had lived in San Diego eons ago so I responded to that but somehow lost my response AND now can’t even find his comment!

I’ll take the blogging course soon so I have a clue what I am doing. Not that it will guarantee success. Apparently, I have very bad computer karma, or a strange electronic field around me that often causes computer malfunction and death if I so much as wave my hands close to the keyboard. Seriously. When I got a new laptop last year, everyone in my household could make it work just fine, but me? No such luck. It was a mystery that so intrigued the Microsoft Store Assistant Manager, that arrangements were made for a house-call (unheard of) to witness the phenomenon.

Anyway…

Dear Badfish,

I grew up in San Diego (Pacific Beach) but have lived in the glorious Northwest now for many years. I still have places and people to visit in North County (Cardiff, Del Mar, Carlsbad, etc.) which I do as often as I can.  You and I had an exchange before about beaches and you said  “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”…or something equally jaded. So I started searching through old photos I’ve taken because beaches are one of my favorite subjects.

This is totally an experiment. Here goes.

IMG_5969
Sand Art

 Kinda blurry but I hope you get the idea.

Oh and you asked if I ever found some beaded thongs for that formal beach wedding. Here they are.

Please excuse the sexy socks. It’s freezing here!!!

I wonder if it’s too early for a Hot Buttered RUM! It is New Year’s Eve after all.

Sincerely,

Kathie (of chosenperspectives)

Northwest’s “dark” reputation!

Imagine, after 20 days of the third wettest (and darkest) December in history, you walk out your front door, into the cold bright sunlight….all bundled up, just to get the mail.

And you spot this late blooming rosebud among the dried out rose hips and naked trees long emptied of their  orange and yellow leaves….

“Late Bloomer” indeed.IMG_5905

Gatherings explanation?

On September 12th, 2001, out of sheer helplessness, I accidentally started a yearly gathering. That first year, in an effort to connect and support, I brought plates of my “grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies” to a couple of stations close to me. Ten years later, on 9/11/11, over 30 women, men and children, baked 57 dozen cookies for our local fire houses as well as for the EMT’s in our city. The tradition grew to include Thank You Cards from kids, and CD’s of 911 music (The Eagles, Springsteen, Alan Jackson, etc.). We divided into 6 teams to deliver to all nine houses.