Tootsie Roll Can

Our youngest grandchild showed me some pennies he had in his pocket.  “Are those your pennies?”  He shook his head  no, “I found them.”

“Ah”, I said,” that’s  God’s money!  If the money isn’t yours and you don’t know who it belongs to, we have a special place for that money—the Tootsie Roll Can I keep in the laundry room. That money goes to charity or church because we don’t know whose money it is."  He dutifully put the money in the Tootsie Roll Bank.

What I never told anyone was the back story to “God’s money”.  My mother was a beautician and had lots of coins from tips.  Of course I was taught that taking money out of her wallet was stealing, but what about money she’d just thrown in the bottom of her purse?  I had found a loop-hole!  If I wanted to go to the corner market to buy some candy, I’d just go to Mom’s purse, root around until I found some loose change, or I’d go to  her room to see if some change had fallen out of her purse.  With coins in my hand, off I’d go.

After awhile, my mother caught on and asked me where I was getting the money. 

 “I found it.”  

“Did you find it in my wallet?”  

“No, that would be stealing”

“Where did you find it?”

“On the floor”

“Is that your money”

“No”

“Well, if you found that money, it’s not yours. And if you don’t know who it belongs to, then it is God’s money and you can put it in the offering at Sunday School.”

When I saw my own children following in the footsteps of their loop-hole-finding-mother, I grabbed a bank—a Tootsie Roll can—and declared that we would put “found” money in that.  So, if they left a dollar in their pants when I did laundry, it would go in that can which sits in my laundry room.  

I continue this tradition today.  If I find money on a sidewalk or in a parking lot, it’s God’s money.  If I find it in the washing machine, it’s God’s money.  If I find money in the bottom of my purse or in the car, it’s God’s money.  I am happy to pass that tradition on to my grandchildren.

Breathe in, Breathe out

My tooth is being pulled today.

So many lost teeth.

Breathe in.

6 years old

A brief tug from my grandpa.

A popsicle and

A quarter from the tooth fairy:

Reward replaced anxiety.

Breathe out.

14 years old

Four teeth pulled for braces:

Sitting in a reclining chair at a dental school.

Dental student sweated, grumbled, tugged.

Panic in his eyes.

Did he know what he was doing?

Breathe in.

20 years old

Four impacted wisdom teeth:

Chipped and chiseled and broken,

Pulled out piece by piece.

Sitting in a  dental chair with tubes in my mouth.

Family dentist sweated, needed a break.

I went home but. .. 

Still bleeding 3 days later.

Gums packed and re-packed.

Breathe out.

73 years old.

A tooth worn out and broken.

Memories of past extractions

Heighten anxieties,

Emotions tumbling out.

Tooth is worn out. . .I’m worn out.

Age and anxiety, chipping away at me piece by piece:

Tonsils, gall bladder, ovaries, appendix.

Soon a ninth tooth.

Breathe out.

Sitting in a dental chair,

Blood pressure is too high.

The oral surgeon comes in with a smile

Dismissing my concerns with 

“That was 50 years ago!”

“How about some laughing gas?”

I can use a smile, a laugh, a buzz.

“Take deep breaths.  

Breathe in. 

Breathe out.”

Reward replaces anxiety.

Whittling Words

Writing poetry

is not just rhyming

not just couplets

not just alliteration.

Writing poetry

is choosing 

words wisely, whittling  away

at thoughts,

until a form appears,

an image takes shape---

Smoothing down the edges,

Sanding down the unnecessary,

Searching for the true.

Writing poetry

is not rhyming 

not couplets

Not alliter. . . hmm. . . .maybe 

alliteration is all right after all.

Wii Life

Being immune suppressed is particularly challenging in the winter which is flu and cold season.  Working out is one of the challenges since going to a gym is out of the question as is walking on icy sidewalks.  For several years, I’ve gone to my “WII Fit “for work outs never realizing it also was a psychological outlet for being socially isolated.  

At Thanksgiving, one of my grandsons told me, “Grandma, I think your Wii is dying”.  Thinking it was the disk, I ordered a new one.  

After a hectic December, I went downstairs to play Wii in January and even with the new disk, I got nothing.  One daughter said, “Why don’t you get an Xbox?”  Another daughter, in the middle of a move, said, “We just got rid of ours.” My third daughter still had one and said she would bring it the next time she visited.  With everything else going on in my life, I needed the Wii NOW, so I ordered one on-line.

I hooked it all up and got ready. . . .it was clearly not MY Wii.  I had to create a new Mii (the digital me) with gray hair not red, it didn’t welcome me to my 3578th day using it, I had to go through each activity as if I’d never done it before.  But none of that mattered compared to losing my tribe.

When I had first gotten the Wii, years ago when it was the new gaming system on the block, everyone in the family created their own Mii, and we had contests to see who was better at being a penguin sliding on ice catching fish and who was a juggling champion.  I no longer had those Miis and I no longer had the records to try to beat.

I was miserable doing steps without Jason by my side or running and not seeing Taryn bop by with her pony tails or without Leah behind me in Kung Fu.  I hadn’t realized that having these digital loved ones had helped with my winter isolation.  It was the “straw” that broke my back.  

When the girls and their families came for their February visits, I had one request, “Come down and play Wii with me.  I need to have some familiar faces—I’m tried of working out with all of these weirdos and strangers.”  Although weighing in was sometimes painful for them, each daughter went down and created her new Mii.  The grandchildren created theirs and we all started playing Wii Fit, Wii Party, Wii Sports.  

We had a great time challenging each other.  The grandchildren saw that Grandma was quite the golfer (on Wii) and we laughed  at the silliness of some of the challenges.  Rachel was #1 as always in the marching band baton exercise until Roman came a few weeks later and had a perfect score. We played and laughed and exercised for hours.  My cup was re-filled.

Now, I can go downstairs, fire up the Wii and bicycle past all of those wonderful faces (and a few grandson-made-Miis like Michael Jackson, Darth Vader and Winnie the Pooh) remembering the fun we had this very difficult winter.  I can run past cheering family members urging me on.  And I am happy.

My Tribe, putting the WE in Wii

Disney Wonder Part 6

Although we had been on Disney Wonder twice before, changes had been made since we were last on it 3 years ago.  The first change was in the Atrium area where the ceiling lighting had been made into beautiful poinsettias.  We had travelled at Christmas before but I'm pretty sure that was new.  The whole Atrium area was very festive with the Gingerbread House also moved there.

The other change I noticed immediately was our room.  I'd looked on several ship maps and it appeared to be standard size which I was very concerned about:  how were we going to manage in such a small handicapped room?  After some digging, I discovered they had taken out a stair case to expand this room---notice the column---everything to the right was expansion.  The balcony was still quite small---more like a standard room.  The bathroom (1) was quite a nice size and Dave liked the shower (many Disney state rooms have 2 "bathrooms":  one with a tub and one with a toilet but I think both have sinks)

There were a few noticeable changes in the dining rooms as well.  Sam and Silas were introduced to "Shirley Temples" AKA Charlie Temples and Cherry Temples.  I know those cost extra before as did any carbonated drinks in the dining rooms, but they had several each night at no charge. We already mentioned Tianna's Place with a New Orleans theme, but Animator's Palate also had a design change---it now included the animated drawings that we made.  We had done that on Disney Fantasy with Roman so I was really excited that it was on Wonder now.  Basically, you draw on a template and it is "magically" animated on a screen.  The next morning, we had breakfast at 6:45 and were off the ship, in our van and on our way home by 9:30 AM.  Another wonderful cruise, Disney (other than getting sick)