FIVE RECENT FAVORITES

In response to a writing prompt at Mama’s Losin’ It:

List your five most recent favorite things.

I decided to choose one thing from 5 different categories of things I like.

1. FOOD: After living in Brazil for several years where I had the choice of 12 different varieties of bananas, here bananas just didn’t taste right to me, so I rarely ate them for nearly 40 years. In a recent attempt to add more fiber to my diet, I started to eat cereal with soy milk and a sliced banana for breakfast. 

        I like my bananas when still slightly green ---and hate them once they turn fully yellow. Luckily my husband likes them slightly riper than I do, so he can eat the ones beyond my personal expiration date, and when they go beyond his, he bakes banana bread.

2. TV: I love Life ---that is “Life” as in the TV show, the story of a police office Charlie Crews, who was framed for murder and spent 12 years in jail before being exonerated and reinstated on the L.A. police force. Charlie got life, but then got his life back.

        Besides working on current cases with his partner Dani Reese (played by Sarah Shahi) he is attempting to solve the murder for which he was wrongly accused. Cruise is played by British actor Damian Lewis ---without a hint of a British accent. Charlie is quirky. He loves to eat fresh fruit because it was scarce in prison. He has a unique, almost Zen-like, take on life. Adam Arkin plays Ted Early, his former cellmate, who is now managing Charlie’s fortune, won in a lawsuit for wrongful imprisonment.
        I like this show because I enjoy mysteries, detective stories, and police procedurals, so I like following a murder case on each episode, but I also like the ongoing mystery of the murder Charlie was accused of. And I love that “Life” has a sense of humor.

3. MOVIES: My husband and I watch a lot of movies. We pass a library from a huge library system on the way to my mother’s. There, we can find new releases, old black and white films, and practically anything from the BBC. We can order videos or DVDs online and have them delivered to that branch of the library. With our Netflix subscription we can have 3 films signed out at once. Our list there, has 420 DVDs on it ---and if we are ever without a film we haven’t watched, we can watch something instantly online with Netflix. 

        Although we sometimes enjoy a recent popular film, our tastes are rather offbeat. We like foreign films, even with subtitles, documentaries and films about nature. “A Room With A View” is on both my husbands and my top-5 list. My husband loves film noir and old horror films like the original “Dracula” and “King Kong.” I like romantic comedies, if not too silly. Among my favorites are “Moonstruck,” “Tootsie,” and “Bull Durham.” Since we don’t have cable TV, we also like to view videos or DVDs of TV shows we have missed such as “The Wire” and “Lost.”
          For a recent favorite, I have chosen “Saudade do Futuro” a Brazilian documentary about street musicians in São Paulo. You can find more about this film on a post at my other blog, A Little “Peace” of Brazil.

4. WEBSITE: I discovered hulu.com several months ago. I love watching full-length movies and a zillion old TV shows. You can also catch up on many current shows you may have missed, like “Life.” One is subjected to a few short commercials, but they aren’t extremely intrusive.

5. BLOG: It is nearly impossible to choose a favorite, but one I love is “The Big Storm Picture.” It features photographs taken by those crazy people known as storm chasers. 

        One can view photographs showing the aftermath of storms and their devastation, but the most dynamic photographs are of the storms while they are brewing. It seems odd that storms can be so destructive and also extremely beautiful. I especially like the photos that show both black storm clouds and patches of sunshine, making for dramatic contrast.
        Here are links to a few of my favorite photographs: Haybales Portal in the Sky Down With the Topmast! Supercell at Sunset Kansas

CHRISTMAS AT DENNY'S

My friends, relatives, and fellow bloggers are either Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, Wiccan or followers of other assorted philosophies. I hope you all enjoy the winter season and holidays, each according to your own beliefs and traditions.

You may enjoy this You Tube video which is all-inclusive: 

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=xlcULT1AjsM&feature=channel 

I wish a HAPPY WINTER SEASON to all.

Earlier this year, I found some photographs my father had taken. They were about 30 years old. (My father died in 1982.)

I digitally enhanced my father's photo (right) of the holiday exhibit at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, c.1979, to create holiday postcards for my 94-year-old mother and used the same image for postage stamps for the cards.  

        Creating Christmas cards for my mother from my father's photograph was about the extent of my holiday activities this year. A long time ago, when my family was going crazy with gift-giving, we all made the decision to give gifts only within our immediate families. I admit it was one of the happier days of my life. I had always felt so stressed around the holidays, trying to complete projects at work, decorate, shop for gifts and groceries, plan menus, bake and cook. 

     Now my husband and I choose something we need for our home and something for my elderly mother, but nothing extravagant. She likes sweets, so I always buy her cookies or chocolates. This year, I also purchased a sweater and some smaller items (such as socks and underwear) that she needed.

        For the past few years, my mother has not enjoyed big family gatherings. All the people and noise are too much for her.  Until last Christmas, I used to roast a turkey or ham after arriving home from work (12:30 to 2:30 am) and make a complete holiday dinner. We packed it in containers and took enough food for the three of us to her place. She lives 45-60 minutes away (depending on weather) so that was easier than driving to pick her up, then back to our house, then take her home and drive back ---three to four hours of driving.    

        We used to call my mother "Mrs. Clean" for her spotless home. Over the last few years, she was not as neat as she used to be and would forget where she put things, but was doing okay on her own. But in 2007 when we took Thanksgiving dinner to her house, despite calling her several times that week and earlier that day to remind her we would be there, the house was a mess. Every dish was sitting in dirty dishwater, something had boiled over on the stove, garbage had been left on the sink, there was a sticky mess on the floor ---it sounded like walking on masking tape in the kitchen ---the bathroom was a mess, and the dining table was piled high with junk. 

        We had arrived about an hour before we expected to reheat the dinner, but it took us 3 hours to clean everything just so we could cook and eat. On the way home, my husband and I decided we were never doing that again.

        We talked to my mother's doctor about her apparent dementia and finally convinced my mother that she needed in-home care. The helper takes care of personal needs for my mother and also does housekeeping, so my mother's home should never again be like it was that day. 

        However, last Christmas, we started a new tradition. We eat holiday dinners at Denny's.

        It's the only place open on Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it was our choice only by default. But it works well for us. I don't have to shop for groceries or cook late at night. We don't have to pack dinner and carry it with us. We don't have to worry about my mother's house being in good order. 

        We plan on arriving at Denny's around 2:30 or 3:00 pm to miss the lunch and dinner crowds. Since I  go to bed around 4:00 or 5:00 am, I order breakfast. My husband isn't ready for a big meal, so he orders lunch. My mother orders a full turkey dinner and has enough to take home for another meal. We each get what we want with almost no fuss. 

        So, we are enjoying a relatively stress-free holiday season. 

        As I write this, it is bitter cold. The temperature on the porch is 2 degrees F. It is very windy; the wind chill is minus 19. I'm always happy when Winter Solstice arrives, because it means daylight will last longer. 

        My husband and I got into the habit of walking late at night after I arrived home from work in the wee hours of the morning. That was especially nice in the summer because it was cooler then, but at this time of year, the weather can be brutal after midnight. 

        When we can, we walk in a park in the afternoon, but because I get up so late, we often arrive when the sun is already setting and end our walk in the dark. Thus the longer days will be very welcome.

Happy Winter Solstice to all.

(©2008, C.J. Peiffer)