Category Archives: blogging

The Overtime Blues

Posted on November 11, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

Yesterday I ended my post with promise of exciting things to come. Well, keep waiting. Today is my Lame Post of the Week.

I know, I designated Friday as the day for lame posts (and I admit that many of my posts not so designated, may be so considered, but let’s not go there). That was when Friday meant something to me. Before I came down with the Overtime Blues.

The Overtime Blues, as blues go, is not bad disease to have. Overtime pay is sweet. And I like my job well enough that it is not all that burdensome to be there. And my hubby is usually working weekends as well. So you see.

But I am TIRED! I don’t seem to get used to getting up at 3:30 a.m. I usually accomplish it by telling myself, “It’s supposed to suck. Get up anyways.” Then I apply coffee.

This weekend I am additionally suffering from the Missing Wine Tasting Blues. Certain female relatives of mine are touring the Finger Lakes on Saturday. I told one sister I probably couldn’t make it, and they all seem to have accepted it with an unflattering good grace. That might have something to do with the fact that I mentioned how loud and obnoxious things tend to get on these wine tasting trips (we’ve gone on a few). I admit that I am sometimes the loudest and most obnoxious. But I guess nobody likes to hear somebody else call them that. So I hope the girls in my family aren’t mad at me. That would make for a jolly Thanksgiving.

I wrote the preceding paragraph while at work earlier. My blues were at their worst, and I was picturing everybody on the wine tasting trip saying, “Oh thank God Cindy isn’t here! It’s much more fun without Cindy!” In fact, I don’t believe they are thinking about me at all. The last I knew they were all on Facebook arguing over with of them was the main troublemaker (each pointing at another but secretly craving the title). So I’m getting over my Missing the Wine Tasting Blues.

Instead, my Overtime Blues seem to be giving way to the Getting My Husband’s Cold Blues. So my lame post ends with me tottering down to the kitchen to make some herbal tea with lemon and honey. I hope to recover sufficiently for a Mohawk Valley adventure tomorrow.

Random Observations

Posted on October 29, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

On Thursday I thought, “I don’t have to do anything Mohawk Valley-ish tonight: tomorrow is Lame Post Friday!” Today (Friday), I realize that, lame or not, I still have to actually write something. What the blankety-blank am I going to find to talk about?

I’m eating an egg and olive sandwich. I blogged about making egg and olive and how it turned out soupy. I fixed it by adding two more eggs, and now it’s pretty good.

Something I always wonder about is why they say you can’t have your cake and eat it too. When someone says, “Have some cake,” don’t they expect you to eat it? I may have mentioned this before. If so, sorry for repeating myself.

The Ilion Farmer’s Market is NOT closing for the season but runs all winter long. It is Friday and Saturday at Clapsaddle Farm on Otsego Street. I want to go there today and buy some pickles. I hope they have the garlic kind.

The sun seems to be shining for the first time in a few days. I hope it refrains from raining this evening, so I can take my dog for a walk.

And there’s another odd expression: “The sun is trying to peek out.” The sun does not really move much; we all know the earth rotates to create the appearance of sunrise and sunset. The clouds move in front of the sun. The sun has very little to do with it. In fact, I believe about a million miles separate the clouds from the sun. I would be very surprised to find out the sun considers the matter at all.

I have no half baked philosophy for today. It’s kind of too bad, because my usual Happy Friday Mood has eluded me for much of the day. I think some philosophy may have helped. After all, as the great Donald Westlake once said, “My philosophy is you have to be philosophical about it.”

And there’s your Friday post. See ya Saturday.

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Lame Post Saturday?

Posted on October 15, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

I had really meant to do something blogworthy yesterday. If nothing else, I fully intended to run this morning, which is always good for a few paragraphs. Well, anybody who read my lame post yesterday (which I don’t recommend) would know I was prostrated by a sinus headache. I barely made my post at all. I woke up this morning headache free. The relief of it! Anybody who suffers debilitating headaches knows what I mean. Anybody who does not suffer bad headaches and thinks I am being a big baby (always a possibility, I admit), just feel grateful you didn’t have my pain and don’t judge.

Now there’s some half baked philosophy I could have gotten into for Lame Post Friday: don’t judge. Did you ever notice that other people’s complaints often seem less complain-worthy than our own? I believe some people are drama queens or kings (no gender based stereotypes for Mohawk Valley Girl). “She doesn’t just get get a headache, she gets a migraine.” Obviously some people do get migraines, and some people like to make a brain tumor out of a stiff neck. How can I tell which is which? Sometimes I can’t. After my pain yesterday, I feel I will be more sympathetic the next time somebody else wants to whine and cry.

Here’s a random observation: This morning when I opened the front door to look for the newspaper (not there yet, as usual), I paused to admire Steven’s Halloween decorations. He hung orange and purple lights including some lit up ghosts and eyeballs. Specialist Spaz, one of my army BDUs we stuff every year, has a lit-up pumpkin for a head. Steven also put his chair on top of a box so he is taller and more visible to passers by. Um, I mean Spc. Spaz’s chair, not Steven’s, although I think my husband would make a handsome Halloween decoration. I myself put some dead flowers from when we dismantled my container garden into the flower box. It only remains for me to refurbish Broomhead and put him out. I think a dummy named Broomhead needs no explanation. Am I right?

So I guess this is my Saturday post: the half baked philosophy and random observations I usually reserve for Friday. Let’s call Friday a sick day, and we’ll hope for something more scintillating on Sunday.

A Really Lame Friday Post

Posted on October 15, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

It is not easy to write even a lame blog post when you have crashed and burned. Yes, I have crashed and burned.

And not an exciting crash and burn with a loud noise on impact and flames leaping in the air. Not even smouldering embers, which would at least have a certain sexy implication. More like a rapid but silent descent down a steep, slippery slope (ooh, alliteration) followed by an odd stench. Soggy, useless ashes, that’s me. Or burned plastic, edges curled, all discolored. Boy, I love metaphor.

Well, that was all I had written in my head before I sat down this morning to write today’s post. Not a bad start, if you like that sort of thing. I would continue writing on the next break and perhaps come up with some random observations or half-baked philosophy. No such luck.

I spent my Friday trying to work around The Worst Headache. I did not write on my breaks. I sat with my head in my hands on my breaks. I guess it was a Mohawk Valley themed headache, because I believe it was caused by my fall sinuses. I do love fall, but fall does not love me.

Now is the time when I usually type in what I wrote, add, edit, etc., and I got nothin’. And not Plenty o’ Nothin’ like in Porgy N Bess. Just big goose egg for ideas. Sorry. My headache is subsiding, probably due to the coffee I’m drinking that may keep me up all night. That’s the price I pay. The price you pay is you had to read another lame Friday blog post. At least it was short! Have a good weekend.

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Lame Self Indulgence?

Posted on September 24, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

As I contemplate the weekend and all the events the area has to offer — and there are a lot this weekend — I have to ask myself, why am I sitting here wishing for a Bette Davis movie marathon on TCM? Yes, it’s Lame Post Friday, the day I have designated for myself when I can indulge in random observations and half baked philosophy.

Indulgence is the right word. Self indulgence. That used to be considered a bad thing. Now look around at the advertising and entertainment industry. Self indulgence is in. Many products are touted as ways to indulge your self, or your senses, which is really the same thing. And how about all those reality shows? You know, the ones everyone scorns but almost everyone watches at least one. I think it’s pretty self indulgent to have cameras follow you around broadcasting your every move and thought.

Come to think of it a blog is fairly self indulgent all by itself. Here I sit recording my thoughts and observations for other folks to read. Nobody asked me to. Actually, a blog is kind of like a reality show. Oh my God, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon!

These random observations are not having a good effect on me. Or is this half baked philosophy? In any case, I’m thinking I should not be so self indulgent. I should go indulge somebody else. Like my husband with a cup of coffee or my dog with a good long walk. Wouldn’t that be unselfish of me? After all, it’s not like I would enjoy coffee or a walk. Well, what I mean is…

I think my post has gone from lame to ridiculous. At least it has been short. Next week I will endeavor to find some real Mohawk Valley stuff to blog about and lay off the lame self indulgence.

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Lame Post Friday

Posted on September 17, 2011 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was trying to write a post on the monthly dinner meeting of the Ilion Little Theater, and I was having a very difficult time with it. At first I thought it was because it was Friday, and Friday has been my day for lame blog posts lately. I was thinking of making it a weekly feature: Lame Post Fridays. A good way for me to ease into the weekend.

Fine, I told myself, write a lame blog post about Ilion Little Theater. See, that’s the first thing to do when experiencing resistance to writing: try to write anyways. Sometimes resistance is plain laziness, and you need to just get going. Sometimes resistance is fear of writing something not very good. By giving myself permission to write something lame, I could get the pen moving (I was writing in a notebook at work).

Somehow that didn’t seem right either. I did not want to write a lame blog post about Ilion Little Theater. Ilion Little Theater is one of the all time greatest things about the Mohawk Valley. I wanted to write a GOOD blog post about it. I even had my concluding paragraph in mind (“Ilion Little Theater has been called the best kept secret in the Mohawk Valley. I’m in on the secret. Now you are too.”) In fact, I’ve written two blog posts about the theater, and I feel they are not contemptible. What was my problem today? I should perhaps mention here that I had actually written a page and a half about the dinner meeting. But I was stuck, and I didn’t want to publish what I had written (and as a further aside, right now I am composing at the keyboard, not my favorite method).

Then I realized the cause of my hesitation: I had not asked people if they minded being in my blog. I realize I put people in my blog all the time. Sometimes it’s some person I ran past, faceless and nameless. Sometimes it is the owner of a dog I know. Then I name the dog, but I don’t even know the person’s name. I’ve mentioned my friend Megan, because I’ve plugged her blog (megactsout.blogspot.com). I thought there could be no possible objection. Dave Dellecese figured in a post, but he was being a celebrity waiter at a fund raiser. I think he expected his name to be public. Oh, and my friend Tracy Robertson has been mentioned a few times. Well, I never asked her, but she subscribes to the blog. If she had a problem with it, I surely would have heard by now.

Then I thought of the opposite problem: what if people would like to be mentioned and I left them out? These are my friends; I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. And so I dithered.

Finally I tried to think of how I could write the post and not mention any people at all. I could report very drily, tell the time and place of the meeting, mention upcoming productions, give information on how to get involved or find out more, and still use my killer closing. Well, I suppose I could still do that. But now I see I am over 500 words of fairly lame post. Happy Friday!

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