Category Archives: Monday Mental Meanderings

Monsters on Monday

Posted on May 2, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

My brain does not feel up to any Middle-aged Musings nor yet Mental Meanderings, so I went to Facebook and looked around for some pictures to share.  Eventually I found my way to a page I like called Famous Monsters of Filmland.  Who doesn’t like monsters?  Oh, I know there are some that don’t, but I just imagine they were put off by today’s headline.  I amused myself my downloading a few classics.

“I bid you welcome.”

One of the most debonair of monsters is Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula.  I’m thinking Dracula reached his height point of sexiness with Frank Langella in the 1970’s, but I never saw that movie.  I’m just going by what I heard.

The new spokesmodel for Norelco?

We go from sexy to shaggy with the Wolfman.  I don’t know what movie or actor this is (I suppose real bloggers research these things and here we come to the ugly truth about me), but I liked him.

Ranking high in the annals of bad first dates…

I can’t help by notice there is a dearth of good female monsters.  The Bride of Frankenstein, despite being the title character, had an embarrassingly small part in a sequel.  I find that a little sad, especially given that she was portrayed by the wonderful Elsa Lanchester.

Oh, Julie, your date is here!

And here is the Creature of the Black Lagoon.  I think his body is scarier than his face, but that is one scary body.  Official Julie Adams (who played the object of the Creature’s desire) is another page I like on Facebook.  She seems to be a very gracious, classy lady.

The scariest one!

I think I have used this photo before, but I wanted to close with Nosferatu, which gets my vote for the scariest movie ever.  And I see I am approaching 300 words.  I don’t think that is bad for a brain-dead Monday.  I hope to see you all on Tired Tuesday.

 

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It Is Monday After All

Posted on April 25, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

As I sat at the Endzone Pub & Grub in Herkimer, NY, this evening, I said to Steven, “I’m going to write my blog post about THIS today!”  Now that I’m home after a couple of beers and some food, and I don’t know that I can really do the place justice.  After all, it is Monday.  I’m tired!

I had a very busy weekend, including a very successful murder mystery on Saturday, auditions for a play on Sunday, and various celebrations and friendly times in between.  I worked a full day today (no overtime, but at my age, just time is enough!).  After work, I wrote some post cards, which I neglected to do on Saturday.  It is a beautiful day outside, so Steven agreed to walk to the post office with me.

Of course we did not walk straight back home.  Long story short(er), we ended up at the Endzone Pub and Grub.  We had some pub.  We had some grub. It was a lovely time.  I hope to write a nice blog post about it.  But that is just the problem.  I want to write a GOOD blog post about an excellent local business.  Right now I feel tired.  And, truth be known, more inclined to watch television.

So, once again, sue me.  I’ll see what I can come up with tomorrow.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

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Trying to Get My Act Together

Posted on April 18, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

So I managed to go running again today.  That’s two Mondays in a row, and I don’t usually run on a Monday.  Oh dear.  I don’t usually write good blog posts on Monday either.  Well, I’m here and I’m typing.  I’m sure I can come up with something.

Full disclosure:  I typed in that paragraph and then just sat here.

All day I kept reminding myself that I intended to run, hoping to internalize the message and not talk myself out of it later.  I did not run yesterday and may not have time to run tomorrow.  Naturally at the end of the day, I wanted to talk myself out of it.  However, when I got home, I got into my running clothes without further discussion with myself.  As part of my ongoing quest to get my act together, I put a load of laundry in the washer before I set out.

It was neither a bad nor a good run.  I ran slowly.  My legs did not feel too bad.  I had to concentrate on taking deep breaths, but I did not have a Vocal Chord Dysfunction episode (which sound a lot worse than it is, both talking about it and when I actually have an episode).  I felt happy that I had run, especially while I walked around the block for my cool-down.

After stretching, I put the clothes from the washer into the drier.  Then I went upstairs and spent exactly ten minutes cleaning the second bedroom before taking my shower.  Remember my ongoing quest to get my act together?  That was part of it: to spend ten minutes a day cleaning.  I’m hoping that some days I get into the rhythm and spend more than ten minutes, but on a Monday after a run, I thought ten minutes was pretty good.

And now I see that I’ve got over 300 words at a blog post.  Maybe my act is more together than I think it is!  Let’s concentrate on that, and not on the embarrassing fact that I have reached my mid-50’s and still don’t have my act together.

 

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Maybe I Could Just Sit on the Porch

Posted on April 4, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was going to make this Monday Mental Meanderings post on my front porch.  I poured myself a glass of seltzer and lemon (in a plastic goblet, because, you know, safety first) (and it really was just seltzer; I was not violating open container), I brought out a chair and the little wooden footstool my father made me, got the laptop and sat down.  Ah, spring at last!

But the sun is so bright, I couldn’t see the computer screen, except for a reflection of my face from a very unflattering angle.  I turned the computer this way and that, and soon realized I was giving myself a headache.  I had on my progressive eyeglasses (you know, the bifocals that don’t have a line, but don’t call them no-line bifocals or the eye doctor will yell at you) (seriously, I worked with a doctor that would come screaming out of the exam room if he heard anyone call them bifocals) (but I digress).  One must place one’s screen carefully with this sort of lens.  Also, my shoes were uncomfortable.  Ballet flats are supposed to be the relief after heels (which I did not wear today, but that’s neither here nor there).  This pair pinches mercilessly.  I must give them away.

So here I sit now, in my more reasonably lit living room (for computer purposes, I don’t mean to disparage sunshine), slippers on my feet, reading glasses on my nose.  I am much more comfortable, but I do wish I had written a real blog post earlier.  In my defense, I was writing something else while on break at work.  Sometimes when I write something, I really like it and think, “Hey, I’m a pretty good writer.”  Then I wonder if I am flattering myself.  Then I come home and type in nonsense like this for a blog post and wonder about myself.

However, between nonsense and a blow-by-blow of the last few minutes (ooh, here’s a Freudian slip: I just typed “blog” instead of “blow”), I am over 300 words.  I think that’s is enough of this stuff for one day.  I hope to do better on Tired Tuesday.

 

 

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A Few Thoughts Before Another Rehearsal

Posted on March 14, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Here I sit, laptop on lap (and if you just said, “Duh,” hey, some people put them on tables), searching for a blog topic.  I push my wet hair out of my face and remember that I can get it cut now.  I kept it “long” for Steel Magnolias.  I put “long” in quotes, because it was not exactly all the way grown out.  It is long enough to get in my eyes and drive me nuts.  With help from fellow cast-members, I made it do for the play.

And why am I not running to the Hot Spot, where I usually get my do’s done?  Well, I have rehearsal for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery Ilion Little Theatre is putting on at Morning Star Methodist Church in Ilion on April 1.  Yes, this blog may become All Murder Mystery All The Time very soon.  For one reason, I have another one coming up April 22 (Who Shot JS? at the Elks Club in Herkimer, to benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society).

In other news, a nor’easter is expected in the Mohawk Valley tonight and tomorrow.  I read a Facebook post from WKTV Weather saying it was a nor’easter not a blizzard, citing the specific conditions to earn the “blizzard” designation.  I was moved to comment that “nor’easter” does not sound like a real word.  It sounds like something the old timers say is headed this way, basing their prediction on their corns or bunions.  My bunions say precipitation, by the way, but they do not seem to feel strongly about it.

Well, I must go.  I need to photocopy the scripts for tonight’s rehearsal.  I am counting on the nor’easter NOT to start till after my actors are safely home from rehearsal.  I am going to call this a Monday Mental Meanderings post and hit publish.  I hope to see you all on Tired Tuesday, although I will perhaps be less tired now that Steel Magnolias is over.

 

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I’m Not Moldy; I Showered!

Posted on February 7, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Oh dear, time passes quickly when you have to be somewhere at 6:30.  Of course this is not always the case.  Sometimes I sit here, stare at the clock and think, “Dammit, can’t it be time for rehearsal now?  I’m going to be tired at 6:30!”  Well, I guess I can say that today, but in fact I have been tired most of the day.  Maybe I had too much fun over the weekend.  We’ll go with that, because it makes me look like a wild child, not an moldy oldie.

I was late getting home today, because I made a couple of stops.  I am searching for costume pieces and props for both Steel Magnolias and Rubbed Out at Ruby’s.  I met with no success.  The Dollar Store (I think it is actually Family Dollar; they’re all Dollar Stores to me, but this is the one near Wal-Mart in Herkimer, and everything really is a dollar.  My favorite kind of dollar store)… I’d better start that sentence over; I got a little lost in my parenthetical comment.  The Dollar Store, I was saying, did not even have any play money.  I thought they always had play money!  They’re toy aisle was shortened.  Of all things!

I also went to the Arc Thrift Store next door.  I tried on two red evening gowns (I’m Ruby).  One fit, but I felt my flab was too lovingly detailed.  It was definitely not a 20’s outline.  The other one I couldn’t even get on.  I mean, maybe I was too fat, maybe I wasn’t.  The fact was, I couldn’t get myself into the damn thing.  It was a lined sheath, and I could not seem to get myself into both parts at the same time.  I would have laughed had I not felt so frustrated.  I caught sight of myself in the mirror after I had given up but before I had put my own clothes back on, and I said, “Damn.”  I positively must eat less.

When I got back home I was too tired to make the guacamole I had intended for my flat bread sandwich tomorrow (on a whole wheat tortilla, by the way).  So I’m afraid it’s Cotto Salami.  I’m sure that’s more fattening, but I comfort myself with the thought that it is better than crap out of the vending machine or deep-fried yumminess from the cafeteria (why is my computer underlining “yumminess”?  Isn’t that a word?  I’ll be damned!).

So that is my Monday Mental Meanderings for the week.  Did anybody notice that I did not whine about not being able to make a blog post today?  Can I get a brownie point for that ?  Mmmm…. brownies.  No wonder I’m fat!

 

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Mentally Meandering down Memory Lane

Posted on January 17, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Now I see what I have to do.  I have to write Monday’s post in advance, because I am clearly not capable of writing on a Monday.  That is, if those two sentences don’t count.

However, I do not feel I should have another whiny post about I Can’t Write Today, so I will do the photo trick again.  That was kind of fun last time, wasn’t it?  Let me see what I have downloaded…

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This is one of my favorites.  It is the LiFT Theatre Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, performed last August at the Utica Zoo. That’s me in the green shirt holding a pitchfork, trying to intimidate the big guy.  Me and the guy in the white shirt were the Watch, and we had just uncovered a villainous piece of lechery.  We were pretty pleased with ourselves over that.

 

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Here is the whole cast of that production, at Canal Place in Little Falls, where we presented the play as part of the Canal Days Celebration. It was great fun, and the audiences seemed to like us quite a bit.

 

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OK, this is one of my heroes, Weird Al Yankovich, as a monk on Galivant, an absolutely marvelous show that, alas, is no more.  The reason I include it today is that I had two parts in Much Ado About Nothing (as anybody who read my multiple blog posts about the show may recall).  Unfortunately, I don’t have an pictures of me as Friar Francis.  So I thought I’d stick in a substitute.

So this is my blog post for today.  My Mental Meanderings took me down memory lane to last summer’s theatre adventures.  That is appropriate, as I am posting this before hurrying off to rehearsal for my next theatrical adventure, Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  More about that adventure later.  And more about further adventures with LiFT Theatre Company!  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

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All Kinds of Drama in 2017!

Posted on January 3, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Welcome to the first Mental Meanderings Monday of 2017.  I hope nobody is expecting brilliance (I know, most of you never had such expectations of me) (OK, me neither),  because I feel tired and stupid.  These are not unfamiliar feelings for me, but I do not repine.  I just have to wait and sooner or later I will feel some other way.  That is how it works.

Where was I?  Ah yes, mentally meandering.  I’m expecting my post-Christmas letdown to continue at least for a few more days, with the occasional relapse as the month wears on.  On Wednesday I have a meeting to talk more about the murder mystery LiFT Theatre Company is doing at the Overlook Mansion in Little Falls.  Who could be uncheered by a murder mystery? (That is a paraphrase from Winnie the Pooh, by the way.  I think the real line is, “Nobody could be uncheered by a balloon.”) Thursday I have the read-through for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.

And then I have at least two more murder mysteries to write, in addition to writing articles for Mohawk Valley Living magazine and making a blog post every day. Then there is running, finally organizing my house and life, and of course seeking out new Mohawk Valley adventures.  I hope to also find time to crochet, knit, and watch true crime on cable television, as well as the occasional cheesy movie to write a blog post about (I haven’t done one of those posts in a long time!).

I see that I am over 250 words.  Score!  And never once did I whine about my inability to come up with a blog post for today.  That makes me feel a good deal less stupid than I felt when I typed the first paragraph.  You see, I was right:  just wait and I will feel a different way.  Bring on 2017!

 

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But I’m NOT Whining!

Posted on December 27, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am in the middle of cooking dinner, so I could do a cooking post.  Or I could stick with my usual Monday Mental Meanderings.  I have come to realize that mental meanderings are easier than middle-aged musings.  “Musings” seems to imply that there is a point or at least a theme or something.  “Meanderings,” I feel, can just want wander all over the place.

So it is the day after Christmas.  At least I did not have to return to work.  I hate working with a post-Christmas letdown.  Don’t worry; I’m not going to sit here and whine about my post-Christmas letdown for 200 or so words (I don’t imagine I can manage 300 or more words today).  I will attempt to not whine at all, but I have observed that some  people will accuse you of whining no matter what.  I suppose to complain about that injustice will also be construed as whining.  File that under the heading I Just Can’t Win.

Christmas being over does bring a sense of relief.  No more presents to buy, make, wrap.  Of course I did not celebrate the season as properly and thoroughly as I had hoped and planned, but it is too late to worry about that now.  It’s on to working on all the projects I’ve been neglecting for Christmas!  I have writing, cleaning and organizing to tackle.  And if I accomplish any of it, you’ll read about it here!

As for right now, I am over two hundred words.  I am not going to try for three, because I’m afraid I might start whining about something.  Hope you’re having a delightful Monday.

 

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Mental Meandering before Additional Auditions

Posted on December 20, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Earlier today I sat down in front of a notebook (paper, spiral bound, I need hardly say), because I knew it would be a good idea to write a blog post ahead of time and avoid sitting at the keyboard and typing off the top of my head, as I do all too many times.  Nothing particularly inspired came out.  I don’t know why I use the adverb, “particularly.”  Nothing the least bit inspired came out.

On the other hand, it is Mental Meanderings Monday.  I’ll just let my mind meander a bit.  If nothing any good comes out, oh well.  Does anybody even read blogs on a Monday?  Um, I just read one before starting this.  I started reading another one, but it was too long.  I’m on a time budget tonight.

And WHY am I on a time budget, you may ask.  Or you may not ask.  You might not care OR you may have leaped to the logical conclusion that I was indeed cast in that play I auditioned for… was it only last Monday?  Is it still jumping to a conclusion if it is logical?  I think not.  I think that is an oxymoron.  That is unusual, because usually I am a regular kind of moron, so I will let it stand.  For another reason, “leaping” and “logical” make an alliteration, which kind of hooks into last Monday’s post.

Where was I?  Ah yes, explaining that I must make this post quickly, because I have to go to auditions for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  Yes, I already attended auditions for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  They are having an extra day.  Long story, not very interesting.  I will let you know if I get cast.  In the meantime, happy Monday.

 

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