Category: Writing

Posted in 2023, friends, life, thoughts, Writing

45 Years Ago!

Posted on by nancyb422
Lyman Hall Class of 1978

Last Saturday, my high school graduating class of 1978, had our 45th class reunion!

I’ve been on the reunion committee since our 15th reunion and numbers have dwindled from event to event.

We managed to get 53 people to attend – which included spouses! No matter how hard we work to get the word out there’s always excuses and no responses to our letters, emails, facebook posts.

We originally planned a group 60th birthday party event in 2020, but as you can guess, it didn’t happen! We used the same outdoor venue and the same theme – Bar-b-que! It was so festive with red checkered tablecloths and napkins and hay bales, corn stalks, and mums for decorations. Some people weren’t happy about the “casual” event but hey, we’re the committee!

We have a core 8 classmates who have worked consistently on the reunions and I don’t know what we’ll do with ourselves until it’s time to start meeting for our 50th reunion! They have become therapy sessions for those of us dealing with aging parents, and cheering sessions for those of us with children getting married, and grandchildren coming along.

Does your high school still have class reunions? If they do, do you attend? Tell me!

Posted in 2023, life, thoughts, Writing

My Favorite Time of Year

Posted on by nancyb422
Sitting in my chair this morning

THIS is my favorite time of year. A warm Sunday mid-morning. Slight breeze, sun shining, local high school field with some game chatter about a half-mile away, and still a hint of the weather to come hiding underneath the warmth.

It makes me think of bike rides as a kid on Columbus Day, local peewee football games with my dad, and a brisk walk in the afternoon.

Posted in 2023, life, thoughts, Writing

I’m Already Here

Posted on by nancyb422

What does your ideal home look like?

I had a running joke with some long ago friends that if I won the lottery I wouldn’t move to a house larger than my 2 story barn style colonial. It had 4 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and 1-1/2 bathrooms but it was only 960 square feet.

My house when I was growing up

No, my answer was, I would add on and make it a larger house. After all, we’re on just short of a half acre and there aren’t many of those in our town where you are within a mile of the center of town.

Well guess what, we didn’t win the lottery, but we added on two years ago. A family room, we moved the half bath out of the middle of the kitchen and made it a full bathroom, and remodeled the kitchen.

It is a dream come true. So yeah, ideal house? I’m in it.

Inside my house
Posted in 2023, life, thoughts, Writing

The Land of Many Pens (and Pencils)

Posted on by nancyb422

I accumulate pens and pencils. At times, I will pull 4 or 5 out of my work bag. I don’t know how they get there because I only use it to transport work I bring home and back to work untouched.

I might be working on my computer at the counter, need a pen and go get one, only to realize one was by me already.

I have pens I love so collect them at every chance I get – Webster Bank pens! – and they have to be clicker pens! No stick pens with caps for me. Those are the first pens that tossed.

I love #2 pencils with a point so I sharpen them constantly. They have to have an eraser so I automatically add an eraser to them.

I developed a thing for mechanical pencils and bought them and their respective replacement leads. Then I discovered disposable pencils and they populate my drawers.

Watching Project Runway, I discovered erasable pens! I know there already were erasables, but I didn’t like them. These are awesome! Pilot FriXIon clicker and it comes in a variety of colors. I now have a set for home and work. I make sure I don’t use them at work for check writing or anything of permanence.

I know it’s not just how the pen feels in my hand but also how it flows. It has to be medium flow and definitely not skip. That gets tossed directly into the trash can with no second chances!

Something about a good pen makes me slow my writing down and really form the letters, and really enjoy the handwriting process.

In my desk
On my desk

Posted in 2023, life, Writing

More like – “What Haven’t You Searched For On The Internet?”

Posted on by nancyb422

What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

I currently have 107 tabs open on my iPhone’s Safari browser. I’m in constant search mode!

Last night I searched for were walking/running shoes. Thanks for reminding me!

I was out walking this weekend and noticed the support in the shoes I was wearing was not as comfortable as usual. They are little old because I wear them forever. I’m the “hey but there’s no holes in them yet!” wear them til they disintegrate type of person. I probably have the receipt – no, maybe not but I do know I bought them over a Labor Day weekend one year!

Anyway, I found a brand called Altra and the style is Solstice XT 2 and they’re sold at a running store about 20 minutes away. The reviews said they were a good walking and running shoe and they looked good. I always agonize between a 6.5 and 7 so I’ll probably take a trip to try them on.

If you know anything about them, tell me in the comments!

Posted in 2023, life, Memories, Writing

TeenyBopper Shows and More!

Posted on by nancyb422

What TV shows did you watch as a kid?

In the mid 1960s through the early to mid 1970s, my sisters and I loved to watch, The Monkees, The Brady Bunch, Here Come the Brides, and The Partridge Family. All these shows had cute guys in them and we were Boy Crazy!

It’s weird to google and see the years that these shows aired. The Monkees was on from 1965 to 1968 when I was between 5 and 8 years old. We were crazy for Davy Jones. How odd to be mooning over this 20+ year old man when we were that age. Right?

We watched variety of other shows, never missing the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. We even watched Lawrence Welk and the Jackie Gleason show together as a family.

Obviously, we didn’t have the channels we have today (but I bet you still watch about 4 of them right?)! Channel 5 out of New York gave us I Love Lucy, and The Bowery Boys movies. And how could I forget the original Little Rascals!

That definitely brought back some memories!

Posted in 2023, life, thoughts, Writing

The Early Bird Catches The Worm

Posted on by nancyb422

What’s your favorite time of day?

I love early morning seven days a week.

It started when my son was born. He woke up at 7am every morning on the dot so if I wanted to work out or be showered and dressed before he woke up, I had to get up, I had to have a plan.

I started waking up at 5am and working out to exercise tapes for 45 minutes to an hour. I knew the routines by heart so I didn’t need too much volume. After my workout, I’d take a shower and be dressed before he woke up.

Was it my FAVORITE time back then? Probably not, but it started the day off right and this habit was born. 33 years later I have the alarm set Monday through Friday for 5:15. I have my coffee and then go and work out. On weekends, if I’m feeling awake, I’ll get up and just drink coffee and relax and read.

It’s quiet, it’s peaceful. When I walk outside to go to my workout next door, I see the moon or the sky getting lighter. I look at my flowers or just admire the yard. No one’s around, no lights are on and it’s just me.

Posted in 2023, family, life, Writing

Family Folklore

Posted on by nancyb422

Where did your name come from?

I have a twin sister and our dad always joked that he wanted to name us Gretchen and Gwendolyn but our mother refused because they were the names of two dogs in the neighborhood!?! We would argue over who might have received which name. Since I’m older and Gretchen was always said first, i claimed that would have been mine. I’m hindsight, Gwendolyn could have been shortened to Gwen and “Gretch”=nope.

So we became Nancy (me) and Gail. It was 1960 and I think mine was a popular name because of Nancy Sinatra. I don’t know where Gail’s name was plucked from. My older sister is Janice. I don’t know where that came from either.

It’s funny because of all our generation of cousins, we are the only three who don’t have a “family name”. No Julia, Elizabeth, etc. and certainly no “catholic/saint names”!

Also, none of us were given middle names. One name was enough we were told. What the heck?

Nancy is ok but for some reason people call me Cathy by mistake. I tell them, “call me whatever you want, just don’t call me late for dinner”. Hahaha

Posted in 2023, life, Writing

It’s A Good Place To Live

Posted on by nancyb422

What do you love about where you live?

I live in a 40,000+ town in Connecticut that was incorporated in 1670. My family has lived here since the mid 1920s. It is very conveniently located between the two major highways running north and south in the state and close to two major cities.

It is a decent sized town (all 169 locations in Connecticut are called towns, and we have counties but we don’t use them like many other states do). Because it is so old (353 years old!), there were many farms that had animals, fruits, and vegetables growing in them and a few still remain.

Ok, I love my town because it is large enough to have box stores, but they don’t dominate the area. We have a great “center of town” with good restaurants, a classic town hall, and new coffee shops, a couple of spas, and a good selection of hair salons.

My town has many activities to gather people together. It has a great Farmers Market in the summer, a weekend festival in October to celebrate the town, and a holiday stroll in early December.

Our town is involved with preserving open space and we have trails for hiking, mountain biking, and fields for soccer, baseball, softball, and courts for tennis and pickleball.

Our public library is one of the best in the state! When I was young it was in a beautiful building built in the early 1900s. When they ran out of room, they built another one a short distance away. When they needed more room in recent years, they added on again! It’s a beautiful, welcoming place with wonderful programs.

The more I talk about my town, the more I realize how much I love it. I left in 1988 to live in California with my new husband. We moved back in 1995 to buy the house I grew up in, to be close to family, and to raise our son in a great environment. I’m so happy we came back!

Posted in 2023, life, Writing

I Am Content

Posted on by nancyb422

What positive emotion do you feel most often?

I had to think about what emotion I feel the most these days and it would have to be contentment. I usually relate everything to our business and my work there and this is no exception! For many years our remodeling business has been consuming because I oversee the operation of it. Clients, financials, and social media – three jobs that can be full time on their own.

Our office assistant of the last 1-1/2 years has taken over all of our customer service from the start of the project pricing phase, right on through to completion and that has given me the chance to BREATHE and really do what I want to do which is social media. Of course, I still have to do the financials and I can’t say I’m 100% gone from the customer aspect but 95% of it. I can now focus on setting up the path for success for our son as he takes over.

That has also given me the opportunity to leave the office before 5, go in after 8:30, take an afternoon off for some spa time and boy, when you can start thinking about yourself – what a world of difference it makes.

It feels good and I am content.