Posted in 2025, life, Memories, Music, thoughts, Writing

Ear Worms

Posted on by nancyb422

I know that ear worms are usually associated with songs but I have an ear worm of a poem running through my head:

Summer breezes softly blow
Memories of long ago
Happy places
Smiling faces
Loving you

It is from SO long ago, and from a random place that I’m not sure it’s exact so maybe I’ve made some parts my own over the years.

I started enjoying poems when I was in my early teens. In our local newspaper was a weekly section of reader submitted poems. Being a love obsessed teen, the poems of that type were right up my alley! I was also in the early stages of typing so I would sit on the floor of my room with my aunt’s portable typewriter and type out the poems I liked. It was a great way to practice, progressing from “hunt and peck” to “not hunting but still pecking” to straight up “no look typing”.

I kept them all in a small book of sayings (about love, of course) that I hung onto for years, moving it with me in my “box of treasures” where ever we lived. Unfortunately, in the course of “simplifying”, the box with this book and some other items got thrown out with the rest. I feel a little heartbroken about it and feel like it’s going to magically appear one day!

Are your ear worms mostly music or do you have a favorite poem that pops into your head too?

Posted in 2025, life, thoughts

4 AM

Posted on by nancyb422

Worry and fear fly into the room and enter my brain at 4am. I should be enjoying the final hour and 15 minutes of a good night’s sleep but instead in find myself awake giving them the opening to appear.

Bills.business.life.health.travel.bills.job delays.bills. Over and over again.

I turn to my left side and recite the Lords Prayer. I try a little ‘God’s got me the palm of his hand‘. Nope.

I rotate like a pig on a spit to my right side. Happy memories? Upcoming adventures? Nope.

it’s 4:30. I realize the problem is, I’m THINKING. Everything involves my brain thinking. Turn it off.turn it off. It won’t shut off.

Then suddenly, I’m younger, alone and driving trying to get home. I don’t know where I am but (in the morning light), I think it’s in a town nearby. I’m driving up a hill, stop when I can’t go anymore and leave my car. Where do I go? Suddenly, I’m taking a yoga class. Then I’m at home with my husband and Vince Vaughn and his sister (?!) stop by to look at our house. She and I talk about needlepoint. I’m called away from yoga by my friend Sherri who died a few years ago to go see a young girl who was in the elementary school I worked at. When I go back, yoga is over so I pack up my belongings and suddenly I’m back at my car. People are picnicking in the area. I look over and my car door is open. Someone broke in but the people nearby say all they saw was people commenting about the car. I head over to look.

I hear a noise. It’s my alarm at 5:45am. I press the button on my phone to turn it off and lay there to calm the feeling in my body from the alarm.

Time to start my day.

Posted in 2025, family, Holidays, leisure time, life, Memories

New York! New York!

Posted on by nancyb422

New York, New York, what a wonderful town
The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down!
—from On Our Way with Gene Kelly

My first memory of visiting New York City is when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. It was a Columbus Day trip with my mother, two sisters, aunt, and cousin and our destination was the Statue of Liberty.

We took the Metro North train out of New Haven and got on the subway heading to Battery Park. We were looking for the Bowling Green stop but how we missed it a few times! We probably headed into Brooklyn and then had to get back on in the direction we came from. We made it to the Statue and had a great time, and I got a pen in the gift shop with a floating statue.

The next time I traveled into the city it was with my sisters during Christmas time. Those trips bring back memories of Crabtree and Evelyn scents and Dansko clogs! We would visit Rockefeller Center to see the tree and shop.

Macy’s
Rockefeller Tree
Empire State Building

When I lived in California, I always raved about New York, and must have been incredibly obnoxious! San Francisco just didn’t compare.

After we moved back to Connecticut, my sisters and I would take our kids into the city to wander. We weren’t very comfortable on the subway – we didn’t want to get lost – so we dragged the kids all over the place on foot! One trip by the time we got the Met on 82nd Street, they were exhausted already! They were very happy when we were finally comfortable enough to take the subway.

My husband is now my favorite traveler to New York. We’ve gone for concerts and basketball games at Madison Square Garden, stayed a few days at a time to shop at Christmastime, and this year I’ve (dragged him along) taken him to a broadway play, with more to come.

Carnegie Hall
The Cloisters
MSG

Today we headed in for a short trip to see the newly re-opened Frick Collection. We had an early lunch before our 12:30 check in. The museum isn’t very large so we saw all we needed to see in an hour. We were headed home on the 2:04pm train.

We’ll be back down there in early June with my husband’s aunt and uncle from California. Tickets have been purchased for a play (Six), tickets for the Vessel, and ideas ready for dinners. I can’t wait!

What’s your favorite place to visit and how often do you get there?

Posted in 2025, Books, life, thoughts, Writing

Why Write?

Posted on by nancyb422

Why Bother
Because right now
there is someone
Out there with
a wound in the exact shape
of your words
— Sean Thomas Dougherty 2018

I heard this poem this past week while attending an author talk by Monica Woods for our town’s “One Book, One Wallingford”. The participants in the program read her book “How To Read A Book”.

She recited this poem when discussing her journey in writing. She had a manuscript for her book “The One-In-A-Million Boy” which was rejected in 2008 (or so). She tossed it in a drawer and her husband kept encouraging her to send it to another publisher. She didn’t, but in the meantime wrote a memoir, “When we were the Kennedys” and a play! Her husband kept encouraging her to re-submit it. But next she wrote “How To Read A Book”. Then, she submitted the cast-away manuscript and it was published.

I have no plan to write a book but her story and the poem she recited really struck me because I alternate between writing, and wondering why I write. Who cares what I have to say or feel? Who am I to feel like anything I say matters?

Reading that poem encourages me to continue to write and hope that someone out there nods in agreement or at least pauses to contemplate my words.

Posted in 2025, family, Holidays, Home, life, Writing

Waiting for Santa

Posted on by nancyb422
Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?
View all responses

My favorite holiday is definitely Christmas!

I remember my dad bringing out the movie camera during the 1960s, along with the bank of lights attached to the top, and blinding us as we walked down the stairs to see what Santa brought. We’d view those movies during the summer and watch as he reversed and moved forward the moment when my sister tumbled down the stairs. Down she’d go, only to fly back up the stairs!

Every Christmas, my mother’s family got together at one sibling’s house or my grandmother’s. Presents would get tossed around, and a shaker of Brandy Alexander would be ready to be poured.

The family celebration has migrated to a weekend before Christmas, so families traveling from out of state can attend and then have their holiday at home.

My husband and I host it every year, and we have had anywhere from 15 (2021 after COVID) to 30 people with us. Before our family room addition, it was a tight squeeze – we even had people sitting in the front hallway and on the stairs to the second floor! But now with the extra space and the open floor plan, no one is without a seat.

I’m not big on decorating, and shopping for gifts is stress-inducing, but I really like getting everyone together!

Posted in 2025, Goals, Healthy Living, hobbies, leisure time, life, Writing

Make it – Check it

Posted on by nancyb422

When do you feel most productive?

I always think I will be so productive because I get out of bed by 6am every morning. But that really has nothing to do with productivity because I’ve perfected the art of taking my time.

I feel the most productive when I make a list of what I want to do and what I have to do.

I find it amazing that I have so many “things” I want to do, yet I never work on them, because I don’t remember them in the moment. If I have a list, I can look and say “oh, I’ll do a little work on this”.

I guess it’s time to take own advice!

Posted in life

Turning 65

Posted on by nancyb422

Yesterday was my 65th birthday. My twin sister’s too.

I wouldn’t write about if there wasn’t something thought provoking behind it. But I guess turning 65 itself can be a birthday to contemplate!

My mother died the day before her 65th birthday. She had brain cancer and I’ve written all about it on my family blog. I recall my dad having to mail back her first social security check. Yes, and that still happens. Unless your family buries you in the back yard. But I digress….

My dad turned 65 two years after that in 1989 where there was probably no fancy schedule for collecting social security. Back then it was 65 – time to collect! He put in his retirement notice at work and on June 5th, he walked into the social security office (back then you could do that too, just walk in and talk with someone!) and filed his papers to collect. There was no financial advisor, no planning, just faith that his social security and a tiny pension from his job, and making picture frames, would let him play golf and travel. It worked out pretty good for him and he eked it out with additional income from the VA as a disabled vet (not from wartime) after health issues until he died at 85.

As for me, full Social Security is not in my near future. I have to wait for 67 and 8? 9? 10 months to collect my “full” amount and since I’m still working in our remodeling company, I’ll keep getting a paycheck from there. I could wait until 70 when I would receive “more” but this will give me incentive to find a replacement for me in the office!

My Medicare started on April 1st so I’ve come off our company policy, but I’ll have them pay my premiums until I go on Social Security when it gets automatically deducted. I bet you never thought you’d learn so much about Medicare and Social Security in one post. I find it a little complicated and feel sorry for people who are trying to navigate it without guidance.

Turning 65 feels odd because I is a “big” number and I don’t feel 65, but I’m looking forward to telling the checker at our Thursday night dinner pickup that the Senior discount now applies to me too!

I think I’ve said this before, but my birthday generates more feelings of a new beginning that the first of the year does. I made some resolutions this year (now, where and what are they?!), so I’m going to find them and assess how I’m doing. As for what my hopes are for this year of 65, I’m working towards better health, more adventures, and expanded mental and spiritual health.

Approximately 3 years old. One of our favorite pictures!
Posted in 2025, family, Home, life, Memories, thoughts, Writing

Desserts

Posted on by nancyb422

Tonight on Spring Baking Championship on HGTV, one of the challenges was for the bakers to elevate one of their favorite childhood desserts. That got me thinking about MY favorite childhood desserts.

My uncle on my mother’s side was a baker. I don’t know if he learned his trade in the army or by osmosis from my grandmother. He owned his own bakery for a few years and, after closing it, worked first at the local prep school, until finally settling in as the baker at Masonic Home and Hospital, a rehabilitation hospital and nursing home for people who were members of the Masonic Temple Association.

This man made the most INCREDIBLE baked goods. It’s amazing that he could make hundreds of desserts for the people at Masonic using these huge tubs for the dough and ovens to bake in and each one tasted as delicious as if it was one of only a dozen.

My favorites were his chocolate eclairs. They were all one piece filled with cream and delicious chocolate on top.

Chocolate Eclair (from the internet)

His cream puffs! Oh my word! Filled with delightful air pockets stuffed with cream.

Cream Puffs (internet photo)

He also made something called a Hermit Cookie. I found it quickly online. They were square bar cookies with ginger and molasses and raisins. One version I found is called New England Hermit Cookie Bar with the story that they date back to the Pilgrims and they were good for travel because they were dense and stayed moist for up to two weeks! Maybe his mother, my grandmother, brought the recipe with her when she immigrated from the Galician area of Poland in the early 1900s!

From thelemonbowl.com recipe

I do remember my uncle’s Hermit cookies being overall dark like the inside of this one.

In addition to his job and making desserts for family events, he made the wedding cakes for my mother, and for my cousin.

We did not have homemade desserts in our house. They were store bought cookies and pastries. My mother worked full time and she wasn’t really a baker, with the exception of the four layer chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and chocolate frosting we requested for our family birthday parties! She never said no! There would always be cake left over and we would eat that until there wasn’t a crumb left anywhere.

I do love my desserts!

What’s your favorite childhood dessert? Tell me!

Posted in 2025, life, thoughts, Writing

My Mood

Posted on by nancyb422

Grey skies and rain for days…

The news of the US….

Social Media….

Combined, they have put me into a mood and I imagine one of those rain clouds is hanging over my head.

There’s only one I can’t do anything about and that’s the weather.

But, if I don’t read everything, I’ll miss out! I really suffer with that mentality.

The weatherman says we’ll see sunshine on Sunday.

I don’t see the news or social media getting any brighter.

Posted in 2025, family, Home, life, thoughts, Writing

Pizza

Posted on by nancyb422

I love pizza. I could eat pizza every day. My stomach and intestines might have something to say about that since doughy stuff and them are not always a happy couple.

My dad used to work until 9pm on Friday nights at the paint store and for dinner he’d buy a small sausage pizza from Verdolini’s. He’d bring home the leftovers and my sisters and I had them for lunch on Saturday.

Verdolini’s, Meriden, Connecticut

We live 20 minutes away from the town that gives Connecticut the (self-given) title “Pizza Capital of the World”. That would be New Haven, the home of Pepe’s pizza, Sally’s Pizza, Modern Pizza, and one of my favorites, De Legna x Nolo.

dinner at Pepe’s Pizza in March for my husband’s birthday

But even closer to home are some excellent pizza places! Right down the road is Fabi’s and in the next town The Bar.

I think the best pizza has a super thin crust, and I don’t mind a char on the bottom. Usually my husband and I will get our own small pizzas in which case mine is a white pizza (no sauce) with eggplant and ricotta cheese. There is mozzarella on there too of course! My husband usually gets a sausage or a pepperoni.

If we’re ordering with a group, I always make sure there is a white pizza and other than that, will eat whatever is ordered!

The Bar white eggplant and ricotta pizza

I liked that this pizza has 9 pieces which means I can eat 6 pieces (thin crust remember? – you can eat more!) and still have enough for lunch the next day.

What is your favorite kind of pizza? Do you like think or thick crust?