When the Daily Post put up their topic today regarding talking about a journey you may have taken, I immediately turned to one that for me is physical, emotional and in a way, spiritual. It takes me back to my illness in 2009, that affected me greatly then and still has an effect on me now. There are many things that helped me get through the entire ordeal, not the least of which is the support I received from my family and friends both in person and through prayer. I am convinced that if it weren’t for all of them, I would not be here to write about all of this today.
But today I want to write specifically about one of the final legs of that journey for me. I have written about what happened to me many times in the past several years, and if you want to read more about it, you can check this post here. I am sure some people are tired of the whole story, so I won’t bore you with it again, but once I came out of the coma and was well enough to be moved from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, they moved me to Helen Hayes Hospital. Helen Hayes is a rehabilitation hospital in Nyack, NY, which is much closer to my home here so it would be a lot easier for Michelle and others to come and visit me. I can distinctly remember being loaded into the ambulance for the ride north to Helen Hayes. I could barely lift my hands at this point, let alone do anything else, and it was going to be their job to help get me moving.
It was weird being at Helen Hayes at first. I was placed in a room by myself because they really had no idea what had made me so sick and didn’t want to expose me to anyone else who might have illness or have me pass something on to someone else, so I was basically in isolation for the first couple of weeks. The only people who came in were the nurses to give me medication, my visitors, the therapists who worked with me in the room for the first few days and then someone sat with me in the room all night long because I was still on oxygen and had a speaking valve, which they took out at night so I couldn’t talk. It would be eerie to wake up at 2 AM and see a shadow sitting in a chair in the center of the room watching me (or not watching as they did seem to fall asleep sometimes). It reminded me of the nightmares I used to have in Columbia Presbyterian at night (a whole other story).
Anyway, things at Helen Hayes move quickly at first. They want to try to get you moving right away and my goal was to try to get out of there as soon as I could. In order for that to happen, you have to progress. There were people who had been there much longer than I ended up staying there. They would help me into a wheelchair every day to bring me to one of the therapy rooms for physical therapy twice a day. When I first got there, occupational therapy came to my room twice a day as well. I also had speech therapy as I had to re-learn how to talk and I had breathing therapy as well. you wouldn’t think you would have to learn how to breathe correctly, but there is a lot more work to it than you realize when you have spent months on a ventilator breathing for you. It was a lot of work, 8 hours a day, five days a week.
Which brings me to how Charles Osgood helped save my life. As the weeks went on I worked harder and got stronger. There was no therapy on the weekends so you had that time to yourself. When I first got there and for many weeks after, I was not allowed to try to get out of bed on my own, so I would be stuck in bed until someone would come to help me into a chair or a wheelchair. Visiting hours started a little later on weekends so I would have time to myself. When your immobile, time to yourself is not fun. You can’t really do anything, so I was at the mercy of my television. I had just started to get use of my hands back so I could do things like change the channel on the remote now. Sunday mornings I would have my breakfast (and the food at Helen Hayes was a thousand times better than Columbia Presbyterian) and watch TV, which is when I discovered CBS Sunday Morning. Now the show has been on for many years, but I never watched it before. For all the weeks I was at Helen Hayes though, Charles Osgood and crew and the stories they covered were my link to the outside world and what was going on. I could watch about all kinds of stories and Charles’ approach to all of the stories was informative, relaxed and while often serious, he always seemed to have a friendly tone. More than once I think he helped me through some pretty lonely moments and mornings when no one was around. In a way, he inspired me to do more on my journey to try to work harder to get home.
After 2 months in Helen Hayes, I was allowed to go home on Halloween 2009. It was a Saturday. Everyone was glad to have me home, though I still had a lot of work to do. I was still on oxygen, could only walk with a walker and still had many months of physical therapy to go through. Just getting in bed that first night was tough. I would wake up in the night and hear my oxygen machine humming, but I was glad to have Michelle by my side instead of being alone. Then, the next morning, there was my good friend Charles, almost as if he was welcoming me home and making me comfortable. I was able to watch him from my own bed and feel even better about myself and my situation.
Now here I am, almost 4 years later, no oxygen, walking only with a cane, typing away here at my keyboard. Sunday morning has just passed into Sunday afternoon, but I still enjoy my mornings with Charles and gang. They continue to help me on my journey, giving me things to think about, laugh about or even get emotional about. My journey still continues on; it will always be there as some part of me, almost as my legacy, but my experience has vastly changed my approach to life overall and, as hard as it may be to believe, that show has played a role in it. Thank you Charles.
Filed under: Celebrities, Emotions, Family, Memories, My Story, Questions, Television, Writing | 3 Comments
Tags: CBS Sunday Morning show, Charles Osgood, Helen Hayes Hospital, my journey, tell about a journey, The Daily Post
I Don’t Want to Meet Him/Her/It
It’s a rainy, dreary, cold day here in my part of New York today, not at all the ideal day you want to have to kick off the first unofficial weekend of summer or a three-day weekend, but hey, we work with the cards we are dealt and move on.Since we’re trapped inside today, Michelle is napping, Sean is in his room on his computer and even the dog is asleep, it leaves me with some time to do some blogging and writing. I was looking through my book of ideas for today and this one seems like a pretty good question to broach for a day like today:
What fictional character would you be afraid to meet in real life?
If you are a fan of horror movies, scary books or horror fiction, then you probably have come across several characters who might fit the bill for you. There have been some great characters created in books and on film that I know I would not like to meet at all. Actually, you probably wouldn’t really want to meet any of them in real life, since most of them seem to have a pretty psychotic bend to them and could do anything at any moment. For me personally, I think one of the scariest characters I have ever read about and seen on the screen is Hannibal Lecter. In my opinion, the books are much better than what the movies have to offer. While Anthony Hopkins does a great job with the character, the character in the books is much more frightening. Whether it is because they alter details because some of what happens is not really suitable for the screen I do not know, but the images that Thomas Harris creates for you in his books give a person who is brilliant, refined and insightful but so depraved and indifferent to those who he sees as beneath him is pretty frightening. If you have never read “Hannibal,” which comes after the “Silence of the Lambs,” the book is ten times more disturbing than the movie is. Even though the book makes Lecter somewhat more heroic in certain aspects, the scariness of his character still shines through. I think meeting him in person would have you feeling on edge at any moment, unsure of whether he was going to engage you in conversation, slash your throat or eat your brain for dinner. He would be my choice.
So what character would you choose? There are a great many that you can choose from, so think about who scares you the most and who you would not want to meet. You can leave a comment here or write me on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll ask some people on Twitter too and see who answers. Thanks to everyone who answered yesterday’s question about who you would want to be stuck on an elevator with. There were lots of great answers from people on Facebook and a special thanks to the actor Harry Shearer for answering me on Twitter.
I am working on a few other things and ideas, so keep checking back to see what comes up next. Stay dry and have fun today.
Filed under: Books, Fiction, Ghosts, Movies, Questions, Television | Leave a Comment
Tags: fictional character you are afraid to meet, Hannibal Lecter, horror fiction, horror movies, question of the day, scary books, scary fictional characters, silence of the lambs, Thomas Harris
Going Up… Or Not
I like the idea that the Daily Post has for their daily prompt of the day today but I think I’m going to alter a little bit just for the particulars of this post. I do think I am going to take up the mantle and tried to fulfill what they are talking about in a subsequent post but I want to change their idea around a little bit and make it fit into my daily question a little better. Their initial idea is to write a fictional piece based on this notion:
You are trapped in an elevator with an intriguing stranger. Write the scene that occurs.
I do like the idea of that and I think a good story can come from it. However, I also think it makes for an intriguing question to pose to you. So here is my take on this idea:
You are stuck on an elevator with someone for several hours. Knowing you’ll get out without any difficulty, who would you like to be stuck on the elevator with?
No one likes the idea of getting stuck on an elevator in the first place. It’s unpleasant, claustrophobic, there is no air circulating, it gets hot and nasty, and most of the time you’re stuck on there either by yourself or with other people who you barely know or interact with. Overall, it makes for an unhappy and stressful event. However, in my scenario you know that you’re going to get out and that you get the opportunity to spend time with anybody that you want to. Now I could put all kinds of restrictions on who you get stuck with, whether it is someone you would know or not, whether it is someone who is alive or dead, the list could go on. But I’m not going to do that. For the sake of good interaction, let’s assume that it could be anyone from any time in any place. They just happen to be on the elevator at the same time you are. So who do you think would provide you with the most interesting conversation? And who do you think would be the best person for you to be with under those circumstances?
For me personally, I’ve given this question some thought trying to come up with who I would like to be stuck with. I’m not a particularly social person in the first place, so the idea of being stuck in an elevator with a complete stranger would be uncomfortable to say the least. However, if it was someone I knew or if it was someone who I had always wanted to strike up a conversation with, I think it would be pretty interesting to see what would happen. After giving it some thought, I decided that I didn’t want it to be somebody who I was already comfortable with and knew well. Not that there would be anything wrong with that, I just think it would be more interesting to be stuck with someone who could not only be a good conversationalist but who maybe could give me some insight. So I was able to narrow it down to two people, but in the end I think I know who my choice would be, and it may seem like an odd choice to some people. I think I would like to be stuck with Benjamin Franklin. Now Franklin experienced an awful lot in his lifetime, was a very bright man, was inventive, a great writer and had amazing insight into a lot of things. I think he is someone you could easily get comfortable with and strike up a conversation. Not only do I think that he would have some witty things to say, but I think he could give some great insight into what went into the actual establishment of the government of this country, his approach on society in general and what he would think about the way things are today. Maybe he could even come up with a way to get out of the elevator faster. I know it might seem like kind of a lame choice, but I think it would be a good one. My other choice would be to get stuck with Mark Twain, who I also think would provide some great stories and excellent insight not only into what it’s like to be a writer but what he thinks of the world today, although he seems like he could get rather surly and if we were stuck for a while, he might become a problem.
Okay, so now it’s your turn. Who would you like to get stuck within the elevator? You can leave an answer here in the comments section or you can catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter and leave an answer there. I will also ask a few people on Twitter and see if anyone responds. Thanks to everyone took the time to answer yesterday’s question about hugs and kisses, and a special thanks to actress Tracie Thoms, who answered me on Twitter.
I’ll see what I can come up with for next time, and I hope to get to the fictional writing for the Daily Post later on this afternoon so you can check back for that as well. Until next time, watch out before you step onto that elevator today.
Filed under: Fiction, Questions, Writing | 3 Comments
Tags: getting stuck on an elevator, question of the day, The Daily Post, who would like to be stuck on an elevator with
Gimme a Squeeze… or a Smooch
It was a pretty busy day yesterday and our anniversary went very well. Thank you to everyone who gave us well wishes and we are both looking forward to another 20 years and more of great happiness. In a way, the anniversary kind of leads me into today’s subject. I was looking through my book next to my desk and came across something I had jotted down a while back, and it seems like a good time to post this particular question:
Hugs or kisses? Which do you prefer and why?
Now it seems like a silly question, and I guess it really is when you think about it. I mean, who doesn’t like getting either one really when you think about it? But I think there is a big difference between the two. While you can get either a hug or a kiss from anyone, the meaning can be quite different depending on who the person is. This seems particularly true to me when you’re thinking about kissing. Sure you get a kiss from your mother, father, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins or sometimes just someone who is little overly friendly that you barely even know. When you get a kiss from someone you are not romantically involved with it has a completely different meaning to you. Sometimes a kiss like this is more uncomfortable and embarrassing than anything else. Surely you have been in the situation where you’re not sure whether you’re supposed to give someone a kiss on the cheek or not when you greet them or say goodbye. For this reason I think kissing can be kind of awkward in a lot of cases.
On the other hand, when you’re kissing someone who you are involved with in some way, it has a completely different context to you. You feel this incredible connection with that person and it is in intimate moment that you get to share with one another. When you have a situation like this, kissing is a wonderful experience that most people relish with all of their hearts, especially when you are first starting out in a relationship (or on the Kiss Cam at you local sporting arena).
That being said, in my opinion I think that’s why hugging is even better. Granted, hugging can be an awkward experience too, particularly when you have to hug someone may be that you barely know and you’re not quite sure how you should react to it. Outside of that, I think hugging is great. It’s an incredible sign of affection that you can give to anyone and anyone who gets a hug it seems to immediately give them comfort and lift their spirits. It can make you feel better no matter what the situation is. Of course it’s even better if it’s a loved one or someone your involved with, but even just a good friend or relative can give you a great hug and make your day. I know for me, it’s wonderful that both Michelle and Sean age give me hugs or I give them a hug at least once a day. I wouldn’t trade those moments for anything else. So I guess in the end, I would have to choose hugs over kisses in general.
Okay, even if you think it’s an odd question to ask, let’s see how you respond to it. You can leave a comment here or catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter and leave a comment there and let me know how you feel. Also ask a few people on Twitter and see if they have any response.
We are getting quite a bit of rain at the moment here in New York, although we could certainly use it and it’s breaking the horrible humidity we have had for the last couple of days so I am kind of grateful for it even though it looks little dreary outside. I hope that wherever you are you are enjoying the rest of your day. Check back tomorrow and see what the topic of the day will be. And give someone a hug today; it will make you both feel better!
Filed under: Emotions, Family, Love, Questions | 1 Comment
Tags: hugs, hugs or kisses, love, opinion, question of the day, relationships
It Was 20 Years Ago Today…
Despite what the Beatles may think, for me it was 20 years ago today that my beautiful wife and I got married. It doesn’t seem like it was really that long ago, but time has a way of just zooming away from us. I just thought I would write a little bit about Michelle today and what that day was like for me.
Michelle and I met about 32 years or so ago when we both rode the same bus to middle school together. We became friends and over time, through high school we became better friends. It was until we were both in college that we actually started dating each other. Our first date she actually asked me to go with her to a company Christmas party she was attending with her. it wasn’t long after that we were dating on a regular basis and I knew I had found the person who I was going to spend a lot of time with. We actually dated for almost 4 years before we got engaged, but I think at that point we both knew that we were going to get married somewhere along the lines, so the engagement just made things “official.” We planned the wedding for May of 1993 and picked out the date to do it.
Actually, we were legally married on February 8, 1993. At that time, Michelle’s car insurance had lapsed and I needed new health insurance, so we both figured it was good to be married then so I could get on her insurance and she could get on mine. We went to a local lawyer’s office, got the appropriate paperwork and in a simple ceremony in his office he married us. I think he is a New York State Supreme Court justice now. We didn’t wear rings or anything because we didn’t really want anyone to know we got married already before the wedding date.
We picked out a place to have the ceremony and reception all in one. We wanted to use a hotel big enough to accommodate everyone that wasn’t too far away. We had picked the Season’s Resort, which was the old Playboy club in Vernon, NJ. We had our location, they could do the ceremony outside and have the reception inside and there were plenty of rooms for people to stay at the hotel. The hotel itself is Legends now in Vernon, though we haven’t been over there in many years. We found out that the laws are a little different in New Jersey than New York regarding marriages. There are no justices of the peace; the ceremony can be performed by a member of the clergy or by the mayor of the town of the wedding. We were able to book the mayor for that day, but then he backed out because of a previous engagement. This kind of left us in a quandary. We were already married; the marriage itself didn’t need to carry any legal merit at all. We considered hiring actors to perform the ceremony before we were finally able to locate a Catholic priest to come and perform the ceremony after it took some convincing and $300.00 to him even after we explained we were already married.
The big day came around. Michelle went up to the hotel the night before while my brother drove me up the next morning. I have to admit, I felt a little nervous though I really had no reason to be. I knew I wanted to be married and had no problem with all of that. I think just the expectations of the entire day seemed a bit overwhelming to me. The hotel had set us up in the honeymoon suite, so I was able to get changed there and go down to where the ceremony was going to be outside. My brother had forgotten the socks and bow tie for his tuxedo at home. He was able to buy expensive socks at the hotel, but no bow tie was to be found anywhere. Thankfully, one of the wait staff gave him his bow tie to wear instead.
There was one brief rain cloud that passed over just before the ceremony began, dropped one drop of rain, and moved on. A lot of my family coming in from Long Island was stuck in traffic and was delayed and we delayed the ceremony for as long as we could before the priest informed us that he had another engagement that afternoon and we needed to get things going, so we went ahead with the ceremony. There were a couple of quick readings, the priest performed the ceremony and we were married and moved inside for the reception. Well, everyone else did while we took pictures. I do have to say the photographer was great and took all group pictures before the ceremony, just pictures of Michelle and myself after the ceremony and then just candid shots once the wedding started. He was awesome.
The reception itself was a lot of fun. We did all the obligatory wedding things and had a good band on hand to perform. Everyone seemed to have a really good time and enjoyed themselves. After the reception, there was another big party in the Hefner suite upstairs for people to mingle and have fun. The hotel also had bars and clubs to go to, but to be honest, Michelle and I were kind of wiped out by the day and just retired to our room. We all got up for a brunch the next morning and we said our goodbyes as Michelle and I headed out to a cruise to Bermuda for a week’s honeymoon, which was awesome on its own.
Fast forward to 20 years later and I can’t believe how much has happened to us and all that has gone by. We have a 12-year-old son now, own our own condo, have each gone through some jobs, sadly some people have left our lives and we have had our share of ups and downs, just like everyone else has. All along we have always had our love and friendship to help us get through it. Michelle has stood by me through some pretty rough stuff and always has the best attitude and approach. We always say to each other that no matter what comes along we always have each other (and now three of us with Sean) to get through anything, rich, poor, sickness health or anything else that comes along. I can’t wait to see what the next twenty years will bring. I am sure they will be just as good or even better than the last 20 have been with my best friend.
Filed under: Family, Love, Memories | Leave a Comment
Tags: 20th anniversary, anniversary, wedding memories
Wow, Now That Brings Me Back…
Okay, normally I would never do this two days in a row but I did to happen to check to see what was going on over at the Daily Post today and see what their recommendation for the day would be. Yesterday seemed to have a fairly interesting question to it so I thought I would see if the same thing was going on today just because I seem to be in a little slump with writing this blog and I kind of need something to help me get jump-started again. Luckily, I found the question to be interesting so I thought I would share it with everybody else:
You receive a gift that is bittersweet and nostalgic. What is it?
Now this certainly leaves the door open to a lot of things for you. It could harken back to something that you remember having when you were a child or perhaps it is something that is meaningful to you from early on in your adult life. After giving the question some consideration, it made me think about not only something that I would like to have that fits this description but it also brought back to mind some things that I still possess that bring back that sense of nostalgia. We all like to have something that reminds us of a happy time from years ago, whether it happened when we were kids, when we were youngsters in school, in high school, in college, from early relationships or just any time in general that brings back a pleasant memory for you. I do have a few different things that make me feel this way and I keep them in a small box on my dresser. Just looking through there, some of the things that are in that space include the hospital band that I wore from when Sean was born, a pair of cufflinks that belonged to my dad, my high school ring and Michelle’s high school ring and a few other miscellaneous pins and trinkets that I had picked up along the way throughout school and my work career.
I also have a couple of other things that go farther back to earlier times in my life. I have a couple of hats that belonged to each of my grandfathers that I keep in the closet. I also have the first baseball bat that my father bought for me (it’s a Johnny Bench model in case you were interested) and I also have a notebook from high school that I kept some writings in that I and some friends of mine put together many years ago.
Now if someone were to show up at the house or present me with a gift that would be bittersweet or nostalgic, I would think it would have to be something that would bring back some memory of the fun times I had at my childhood playing. There were a lot of different things I could think of, including the teddy bear I used to have when I was very little (his name was Rufus). But I think if I had to narrow it down to just one thing that would really bring back some nostalgia for me it would be a simple, rubber Spalding ball. When I was growing up, we would spend hours doing all kinds of things with just that simple ball. The times that we spent playing stickball in the street, having a catch or playing stoop ball in front of our house in Ozone Park where my grandparents house in Brooklyn. Just seeing one I think would bring back a lot of good memories and fun times that we had.
So that’s my answer to the question. What would be a great nostalgic gift for you? It can be whatever you want it to be; there are no restrictions or limitations here. Feel free to leave a comment here or you can catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter and leave a note there. I’m curious to see what people can come up with. I’ll also ask a few people on Twitter and see if they respond. And thank you to those who took the time to answer yesterday’s question.
Sean and I are off to Citi Field again today for the Mets game so that should be fun for us and maybe we’ll actually get a home run ball today. It would be even nicer to get a win for the Mets but I’ll take whatever we can get. Check back again soon and see what the next topic of the day will be. Have a great day all!
Filed under: Memories, Questions | 3 Comments
Tags: bittersweet and nostalgic gift, Daily Post, memories, question of the day
Another day, another blog post. I was looking through a couple of my books today where I keep notes and write things down for ideas when I’m looking for something to write about and I didn’t really see anything that jumped right out at me for today. So I wandered over to the Daily Post, a blog that is maintained by WordPress to help give you ideas and points about things you can discuss her write about in your own blog. And that’s when it came across this particular question, which I thought would make for a great writing point for today:
You encounter a mysterious man offering you a magic potion that, once sipped, will make one of your senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch) super sharp – but dull the others. Will you sip it, and if so, what sense do you choose?
When I first read this question, I thought wow, it would be pretty cool to have one of your senses heightened that way so you could experience things on a whole new level. But then there is the other side of the coin, where the rest of your senses are going to be dulled and perhaps that will cause you to miss out on experiences that you might otherwise have. Sure, it would be great to have vision where you could see things clearly all the time and wouldn’t need glasses anymore, or super hearing so you can tell when there might be a storm coming or other trouble not far away, but is that a fair trade-off where you would have the experience of eating something that you know tastes great and you can’t enjoy it on the same level as everyone else? Or would holding a loved one’s hand mean the same thing to you anymore if your sense of touch had been dulled to the point where you couldn’t really feel it? I know for me personally, that would be pretty upsetting. As someone who has had some experience with sensory loss because of my illness, I can tell you it’s not something I would wish on anyone else. It’s hard enough trying to walk around sometimes when you know you can’t completely feel everything that’s under your feet. Giving the question some serious thought, I just don’t think I would be willing to take a sip of that potion myself. There is no particular sense that I feel like heightening it would add that much more to the life I already have, especially at the cost of losing some of the levels of my other senses.
I think it’s a pretty interesting question to pose. I’m curious to see you what your thoughts and feelings are on the subject. Feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll also post question on Facebook and twitter and you can always leave a response they are as well. Thanks to everyone who considered the question yesterday as far as a book that has greatly affected your life, and a special thanks to E. L. James, the author of “50 Shades of Grey” and the associated books with that for answering my question on Twitter.
Okay, time to get back to work and back with the real world. We’ll see what comes along tomorrow, and as always if you have any suggestions, comments, questions or writing of your own that you would like to share, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know. Thanks again for following along. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Filed under: Blogs, Questions | 3 Comments
Tags: heightening your senses, question of the day, The Daily Post, the five senses
Is it Life Changing?
When I got up this morning, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to write about. I started glancing through my Twitter feed and I happened to follow the author Paulo Coehlo. If you have never read any of his work, I highly recommend “The Alchemist” and “Aleph,” both of which are excellent books. He had posed a question on his Twitter feed and on his blog and the more I got to thinking about it the better I thought it would be to ask myself. He asked for the names of the five books that changed your life. I think five might be a bit much for some people. I think a lot of people can say they have really only been influenced highly by one or two, three at the most. So I am going to change the question up a little bit:
What is the one book that you think has changed or affected your life the most?
I started thinking about this as soon as I read the question this morning. For me, I think there are 2 books that I can say have had a big effect on my life. The first is William Paul Young’s “The Shack.” Granted, many critics and people will say that it is not a great piece of literature and just as many might say they disagree with message. That’s fine; I am not looking for an argument on its literary merits or its religious take. For me, the book carried meaning. It came along at an important time in my life just after my father had passed away in 2008 and I think it really helped me to understand things better from my own personal perspective. After my own illness and brush with death in 2009, I read it again and I think it meant even more to me. As someone who does not consider himself to be the model Christian or even very religious, it gave me some insight into the way that I need to approach life, love, religion, the hereafter and God. For me, it was a life changer.
The other book that I think had a big effect on me, and for completely different reasons, is Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Now, some may wonder how this particular book could have any type of influence on a person, but it changed the way I approach literature and writing. This was one of the first books I read when I was starting to go for my Master’s degree in English and it opened my eyes. The way Marquez is able to employ just about everything into his writing and make you feel what the many characters in the book are feeling to me was enlightening. It also gave me my first exposure to books using things like magical realism and a postmodern approach, and I loved it. From then on, I was always looking for books that would give me the same feeling and insight and I think it still affects the way I read today.
So what book do you think has had the biggest effect on your life?It can be anything; it doesn’t have to be something profound or deep or with great literary meaning as long as it means something to you. Leave a comment here and let’s see what you can come up with. I’ll ask some people on Twitter too and see if they respond.
Thank’s to all who answered my last question about the Muppets. It seems as though there are a lot of Miss Piggy and Animal fans out there :). Check back next time and see what I feel like talking about.
Filed under: Books, Questions, Writing | 6 Comments
Tags: book that has changed your life, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Paulo Coehlo, The Shack, William Paul Young
Re-Boot: Wocka, Wocka
So enough of listening to me complain about not having enough time in the day to take care of this blog. I want to do it more, so I am going to do it more and find the time to do it. Let’s get beyond that and simply move on to other things. I was just trying to figure something to write on here today to help me get back into the swing of doing fun writing. So I got to thinking about what would be fun to write about, something cheerful and that makes us smile, and then for some reason this question popped into my head, so I will pose the question and see what you have to say:
Who is your favorite Muppet?
I know, it’s kind of a weird question. You are probably thinking – he took all this time off from writing this blog and this is what he came up with? Sadly, for some reason it came to me today. I don’t know why I was thinking about the Muppets, but then why do we think about half the things that come into our heads during the day? Anyway, I do have an answer to this question. Now if we are talking about Sesame Street, which I think are not really part of the Muppets, I would have to choose the Count. Now I remember when the Count first came around and was a little more edgy, when he could actually hypnotize people into silence and things like that that a real vampire could do. That was the Count I always liked. Not that there was anything wrong with the Count after that. He was funny and served his purpose, but there was something more appealing about him earlier on.
Anyway, my feeling has always been that the puppets on Sesame Street are not Muppets. The Muppets had their own TV show and movies and those are the guys I remember. Now I was much older when the Muppets first started around, and Kermit would be the easy choice to make as the favorite of the group. He was smart, friendly and likeable and had a good sense of humor.I like him, but he’s not my favorite. If I had to pick a favorite it comes down to 2 characters for me:
It has to be Fozzie vs. Beaker. Now Beaker never talked, but there was something about the way that he expresses himself and the way he was always getting into Three Stooges-like situations that made you have to smile and laugh every time he was on-screen. Fozzie was the lovable vaudeville comic who’s jokes were so bad that you usually cringed instead of laughed, but he has a certain amount of sincerity and caring about him, and he does actually seem to come up with some funny lines that most kids probably didn’t get at the time. So I think if I had to choose for myself, I would go with Fozzie.
So what do you think – who is your favorite Muppet? You can choose someone from Sesame Street; I won’t hold it against you if that’s what you like best. You can leave an answer on here or on Facebook or Twitter. I am curious to see if I can get any celebrities on Twitter to answer me as well. I’ll post if they do.
Next time, we’ll see what I can come up with. You never quite know what it is going to be. Let’s think of this more as a stream of consciousness blog for now. Sometimes it will be questions, sometimes baseball, maybe music, movies, current events, writing, it’s really whatever happens to strike me at the moment. We’ll try it that way for a while and see how it goes, okay? If you ever have a suggestion, question or just feel like saying hi, drop me a note or comment. I’ll be back.
Filed under: Blogs, Television | 2 Comments
Tags: Beaker, favorite muppet, Fozzie Bear, Muppets, Sesame Street, who is your favorite muppet
It’s been a couple of weeks since I have done a posting on here. As I have said before, there just never seems to be enough time for me to get on here and post like I would like to. Real life has a way of getting in the way of doing things we would all enjoy more, and then when I do have some free time, I just can’t seem to get the energy up to get on here and write. I think I can can get more into the swing of doing it again every day if I start out by just doing some short posts to get me back into the groove and the mood. It’s hard when you spend all day writing to get the energy up to write just for fun; at least for me it is sometimes.
So for this first short post, I just want to give a quick notice to a new blog that was introduced to me this past week. It’s called “Kids Who Think Outside the Box.” It doesn’t just refer to children who may not fit into what some may call “the normal” or popular group that many kids feel the need to try to fit into. While I may not (and still don’t, I think) fit into what is the mainstream I think it’s great for kids and adults who can embrace being this way and thrive on it. It’s not always an easy thing to do for anybody, particularly if it means you stand alone sometimes. The great thing about is it encourages you to be yourself and be interested about the many different things that go on in the world around us. Try something that is out of the ordinary; encourage your kids and yourself to be as unique as you or they want to be. Most of all, have fun and be happy with who you are and what you do. I have found through my personal experiences that we don’t get a lot of chances to really get the most out of our lives. We spend so much time worrying about things that we don’t have a lot of control over or getting caught in a career or life that we are unhappy with. Take it from me – life can turn on a dime and completely upend you. Take your time to enjoy your family, friends, surroundings and your passions in life.
Check out the blog and see what you think. I think you’ll enjoy giving it a look. More from me later on, including the last story Sean and I were working on and the new one we are working on as well.
Filed under: Blogs, Change, Dreams, Family | Leave a Comment
Tags: blogging, blogs, Kids Who Think Outside the Box
The Office of Iguana Flats 