Friday Five Traveling

Songbird posted this Friday Five: Trains, Planes and Automobiles

By the time you're reading this, I'll be en route to a Great Big City to see my son in a play. I'll go by car and bus and train and no doubt cab and maybe even subway. Thus, our Friday Five:

1) What was the mode of transit for your last trip?
My last vacation was for my birthday and involved an automobile and a ferry. It was a good combination as the ferry-Cape Mays, came near the end of the journey as we got weary of driving and was scenic and had snacks and a bathroom!

2) Have you ever traveled by train?
Oh yes we did and overnight and in one of those scenic ones with a glass top-in the Canadian Rockies. Liked the glass top. Not fond of the overnight as the train always seems to rock the wrong way-foot to head, not side to side.

3) Do you live in a place with public transit, and if so, do you use it?
Every day, subway and often cabs.

4) What's the most unusual vehicle in which you've ever traveled?
Hmmm, I fly without vehicle in my dreams.

5) What's the next trip you're planning to take?
We'll be taking a cruise with 16,000 of our closest (lesbian) friends on Olivia Cruises to Mexico and Belize at the end of February. Can't wait!

Friday Five Metaphors

Jan posted this metaphorical Friday Five: "In EFM this week, our question was, "If you were a color, what would you be?" So that's where this Friday Five comes from, at least its jumping off place."

1. If you were a color, what would you be?

I'd be a bright changeable-like the sky- blue. Imagine me your mood ring with all blues and none of those nasty greens.

2. If you were a flower (or plant), what would you be?

I'd be a Peony in the early summer. Bright and showy with a short season. alas.

3. If you were an animal, what kind would you be?

Call me your big floppy dog. A really doggy dog, loyal to a fault with long soft ears. A dog that sighs.

4. If you were a shoe, what type would you be?

A nice flat ambiguous boot. Maybe with a Hunt Top.

5. If you were a typeface, which font would you be?

Why, Times New Roman, Of Course !

The Project: Update- the Co-Op board likes us

Some of the antique equipment that is coming with the co-op

We got our mortgage extension, but just until next Friday. Getting a mortgage these days is really an exercise in frustration! They still want updated financials-which are already in their hot little hands, but they haven't apparently looked at them, yet.
Thursday night, after having been at work from 7:30am, I took the 5:28 from across the street from work to my new (weekend) home fir a 7pm meeting with the co-op board grilling...I mean interview. They were very nice and after a review of the house rules-NO DOGS, sob- they seemed to be happy with up and they accepted our application-as they told us on the phone the next day.
So the next step is to get that mortgage extended for the THIRD time and schedule a closing~I never thought we would get here.
I thank KK for her help and BL and I discussed how we would have never be this far without her help.
Well, that's the latest. Time to start picking out paint colors, appliances, furniture etc.

Fresh starts and covenants- Friday Five

Sally wrote, "As I prepare this post I am aware that it will be posted on New Years Day. We stand at the beginning of 2010 looking not only at a New Year, but at a new decade full of promise and possibilities. For some of us this will be exciting, but others will approach it with trepidation and probably most of us stand on this threshold with a mix of emotions and reactions.

It is at this time of year that many (British) Methodist Churches celebrate their Annual Covenant Service, a service that will include this prayer:

I am no longer my own but yours,
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you,
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you,
or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now glorious and blessed God,
Father , Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
May it be so forever.
Let this covenant now made on earth
be fulfilled in heaven. AMEN

This prayer is said every year, and offers every member an opportunity to renew their covenant with God. This is no soft or easy prayer, it states in the company of others our willingness to worship God come what may, not that we should become doormats, but that we place God above all else. ( And every year if we are honest we have to acknowledge that we fail).

With this prayer in mind I bring you this Friday Five:"


1. What will you gladly leave behind in 2009?

-I leave behind looking for a place to live, another place to live as that place is found. I also leave behind the work of couple counseling, not that we have finished, but the 'heavy lifting' is done and that made buying a place possible after years of looking. It also helped the Beloved and me to communicate better on a number of subjects, the largest of which was buying a place to live!

2. What is the biggest challenge of 2010 for you?

I guess that would be: 1. Making that house a home. and 2. reconciling work with less stress. I have to remember it's just a job and my counselors are not my children, although they feel like what children might feel like!

3. Is there anything that you simply need to hand to God and say "all will be well, for you are with me"?

Finding my place of worship. I have my SFX girls, so they fulfill me for the moment.

4. If you could only achieve one thing in 2010 what would it be?

See part 1. of # 2. Making a house a home.

5. Post a picture, poem or song that sums up your prayer for the year ahead....

5. Friday Five

Things I am Grateful on this Christmas Day

So many things...

I am thankful for my sanity after a shaky early life filled with, shall we say exploration and uncertainty.

I am very thankful for Beloved who has put up with me as I have put up with her for almost 19 years, through thick and thin, sickness and health, better and worse and all the rest but one...

I am so glad to get to know my the Godchild who grew up away from me, states away, but we have gotten to know each other a adults, both of us-as least she's an adult.

I am grateful for the cousins. When some of us are only children and some of are only by death or distance, I rely on them, also through the thick and thin, and when we get together we ague like the sisters most of us never had and Janet teaches how! And Michele, who I never, even knew as a child has become a great friend and who is full of surprises.

I am so grateful for the Brother-in Law, the best one a girl could ever want! Who knew I would ever have one! I hope he has a wonderful New Year...

I am grateful for my friends, who like the souvenir ruler that I got when I was on a trip as a child said should be "like books, few and well chosen." Well I get the second part, but not the first. Books, still over run me, thank God. Laurie, Maureen and Randi, Steve and Paul, Joni-who baked me Christmas cookies-Jim,Amy, Paula, Carmel, Carol Sally, John, Roe, Joe, Steve Paula, and the rest of you all know who you are...

I'm very grateful for the Revgals for giving me guidance, for being there when I was ill, for answering questions, for having fun.

I'm grateful to the NY State Education Department, Vocational Services for Individuals for Individuals with Disabilities for letting me keep my job in these hard times and letting be practice my skill and learn to be a better counselor every day, even the days that leave me tired and frustrated. More days leave me proud of what I do and that's good.

I'm so Grateful that my Aunt Julie, at 91 is still with us in mind and body and able to have fun with us.

I'm very grateful to Mary to help me to get here.

Thank you all and Merry Christmas.

Friday Five Christmas Traditons

Jan posted this Friday Five: "Christmas traditions vary from family to family and from regions afar. I've been pleased that my oldest son's wife AA loves to be with our family for Christmas, though I don't think we do anything out of the ordinary. It helps that DC has one brother and two sisters to liven up our home.

Since I finally decorated the Christmas tree and have started baking Christmas cookies, I am thinking of Christmas only being one week away.

So for this Friday Five, tell us five things about the traditions in your family. Think of:"

1.traditions you always do

We Celebrate Hannukahah. Since beloved in Jewish and this usually happens right before Christmas, we light the 8 little candles, one more each night. Tonight will be eight plus the shamus (the middle one, the one used to light the rest.

2. traditions you always cook or eat

Cookies have to be in there somewhere...

3. traditions you would like to start

Still looking for a home church for the main event...

4. traditions you would like to discard

Shopping, Office parties. Actually, since I moved my office to Brooklyn, I really like the office party. It was Tuesday and we had a great time! Hmm. Change can happen?

5.anything about your family Christmases

Well our family tradition involved my father drinking more than usual. The good part was my mother baking lots of wonderful cookies.

Ocho Kandelikas-Happy Happy Hannakah

Friday Five Do Nothing Edition

I'm trying to figure out the reason that the gay marriage bill failed to pass in NY by such a huge number this week? Or failed to pass at all!

1. I won't be doing much more shopping since most of mine is done.

2. I will be filling out more forms, since my mortgage banker at CHASE BANK informed us, moments after the gay marriage bill failed that our Canadian marriage would not be recognized and that we had to apply separately for our mortgage! I bought a house with a partner in 1978 and this didn't happen!

3. I won't be planning Christmas dinner, as we will be going out.

4. I will be wrapping the gifts for the gifts for homeless kids party that our Catholic Lesbians group is having tonight.

5. I will be lighting candles for 8 festive nights!

I cheated with will and won't. I will be taking as many naps as possible!

My Long Weekend-Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we're going to BL's aunt who usually has this shindig. This year she has moved into senior housing, a smaller apartment so it will just be BL and me, her two sons, the gay one and his BF, and straight on and his wife and two kids. Lots of vegetarian food and, oh yes, a turkey, a real one.

Tomorrow will be the shopping event with my godchild, the adult woman. First stop, my 8:00 am a.m. a.p. at the MAC store where I hear there are some special specials and I am lusting after a new power book or whatever they're calling them now will be my Christmas gift to myself. We'll just see. In the evening, it's dinner with the cousins, including my cousin from Florida who I don't see often. I love my cousins and it's always a treat to get together with them.

Saturday we'll be having dinner with our friends in Long Beach, our new home away from home. We're treating our friend, the lawyer who helped us with negotiations that helped us to get such a great price. I hope to stop at Costco on the way. (more shopping-there's no Costco in NYC yet.)

Sunday we rest. Perhaps I'll go the the Church of the Holy Apostles, the Episcopal Church that I'm currently interviewing.

Monday is my pass day. Itinerary to be determined.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Friends

Friday Five Thanksgiving

Jan posted this Thankful Friday Five:
"Aunt Bert says
it's snowing there in Arkansas,
on Catfish Lane, and she hasn't been
able to walk out to their mailbox.
She's been suffering
from a bad case of the mulleygrubs.
The cure for the mulleygrubs,
she tells my sister,
is to get up and bake a cake.
If that doesn't do it, put on a red dress.

--Ginger Andrews (from Hurricane Sisters)

So this Friday before Thanksgiving, think about Aunt Bert and how she'll celebrate Thanksgiving! And how about YOU?"

1. What is your cure for the "mulleygrubs"?
A nap. Probably not the best...

2. Where will you be for Thanksgiving?
We'll be at Beloved's 82 y/o aunt who started eating meat again at the age of 80. The food is always... interesting, but always includes real turkey.

3. What foods will be served? Which are traditional for your family?
Well, There will be Turkey
We're making cranberry sauce and pie
The rest is a crap shoot, but you can bet on lots of vegetarian and vegan options because a good part of the family is one or the other.

4. How do you feel about Thanksgiving as a holiday?
I like it. The secularity, yet warmth and thankfulness of it. The coming together of families, mixed, pulled together, whatever. Last year we were at the same site, yet we had extended families from my family, a sister-in laws family, lots of different families.

5. In this season of Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?
I'm so grateful to almost have a new home and more space!