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Showing posts from May, 2010

I'd like to buy the world a Coke.............

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Like most little girls, when I was a little girl I loved my Barbie-like dolls. The world of pretend was a way for me to get away from it all. My creative imagination would run free with storylines and scenarios for my dolls to act out. But, I also liked to give them the names of friends in my real life. The red haired doll was Stephanie, the black haired doll was Micki and so on. I did however feel bad that I couldn't give one of my dolls the name of my best friend, Patsy, because at the time I didn't have any that looked like her, she was black and all I had was white dolls. This was back in the day when I grew up in that university town of Evanston, IL..home of Northwestern University. Back in the progressive mid 70's, a time when differences were starting to be celebrated. The popular commercial on television was that Coca-Cola commercial where on top of a hill a United Nations crowd of young people sang how they wanted to buy the world a coke. So as a li

Monday ramblings on faith

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The year was 1993 and that picture is of my darling eldest child, Justin. He was an adorable baby - the perfect round baby face - the wisps of blonde hair and that plump baby fat body - my first child, all 9lbs of him at birth, and to me has always been a walking miracle. However getting to the point of this picture being taken was a wake up call to me on man and religion. We were living in Addison, IL at the time of his birth and the Catholic church I belonged to had refused to baptize him as my husband and I had married outside of the faith. The refusal came the same night the priest chastised me for being a bad Catholic. I went home that night in tears...shaking...guilt ridden - feeling as if my actions had now damned my child for all of eternity. Tim, Justin's father, thought I was crazy to feel that way, and never really understood why it was important to me to have our children baptized..."screw 'em" was his comment. The priest wouldn't allow me to expla

Made it through missing daddy...

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Yes, I made it through one of my annual tough weeks.  Every year since 1996 the days between May 4th through May 13th are exceptionally hard. Contained in that time is the anniversary of my father's death..his funeral...his birthday, and then of course Mother's Day. When I lived in Illinois, and it was this time of year, I spent many hours out at All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines. Daddy is buried there, just beneath my grandparents plots, and right next to a lilac bush. I would always sneak (ok, swipe) a few clippings off of the bush and place them in a vase on our table - it always seemed to be comforting for me to do that. Since living here in Wisconsin I haven't had that yearly tradition -- and every year, it never fails, when that week hits I find myself wishing I could repeat those steps I once found comfort in - So needless to say I still miss my father. I wonder if that will ever pass? I can say that I find myself dealing with it all a bit better than I use

In search of .....a living wage

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I remember when my ex and I first started out together. That very first apartment we had - that year of "living in sin" after over a year of dating, and a year before we took the plunge and tied the knot. It was two decades ago - We both had full time jobs, we were very young....and eager to begin our lives. Everyone told us how rough it would be to start out since we both were making low wages at the time...I was pulling in $7.50 per hour and he was making $8 per hour - The rent on our little one bedroom apartment with the tiniest galley kitchen I've even seen was a whopping $500 per month - electrical heat and a mini water heater under the kitchen sink. We learned to schedule our showers and doing dishes so that there was always enough hot water to meet our needs, and we learned to budget - a strict budget. We both kept out $50 dollars a week from our checks to pay for things like gas for our cars, and personal items we may need...including clothing and nights out wit

Up, down - and back UP again....

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I feel like I've been bouncing on a trampoline all week long...up, down, up, down... This week started off pretty damn incredible - so incredible in fact now many of my female friends are drilling me about a certain special person because for the first time in the very long time that he has been in my life...they have seen the evidence. "Who is this guy, Eva?" "Why haven't I met him!?!" "When are you going to introduce him?" "You tell him I want to meet him DAMN IT!!!" I've always tried to keep my "love life" ...at least while it's happening in the moment..."quiet" - None of my friends or family has met him yet...the kids have, but that's it. But, I must admit that is getting somewhat harder and harder since the latest gesture from this ...ooooh...how do I say it...hmmmmmmmmmm?????? Prince Charming with a quirky twist (long story...like I said before...buy the book!) And I also