The Country Mice Go to Town

   Doug and I recently returned from a week's vacation in Chicago.  We are still trying to wind down and adjust our pace back to Oklahoma style.  We feel a bit like we have just been dumped off a jet-propelled escalator.  There is nothing like a visit to a big, fast-paced city to bring out the country in us.
   We decided to stay in a downtown Chicago hotel so we could avail ourselves of public transportation and avoid renting a car, so the first order of business was a taxi ride from the airport to our hotel.  This is where we got our initiation into the Chicago frenzy.  Our cab driver careened in and out of traffic and cursed the other drivers proclaiming them all to be idiots. We did, however, arrive safely but white-knuckled at our destination.
   After stowing our luggage, we decided to check out the neighborhood and find a nice restaurant.  After walking several blocks and debating on several establishments, we decided on a small, interesting-looking place on a busy corner.  We were led to a table where we perched on some very tall chairs.  An urbane young waiter then proceeded to explain to us the "concept" of the restaurant.  We should have left then.  It turned out that this particular business specialized in very small bowls of pasta and $100 bottles of wine.  We turned down the wine, ate our miniature meals, and went searching for ice cream.
   After a week in the city, my theory on Chicago restaurants is this:  Prepare some mediocre food, vastly overprice it, throw in a snooty, black-clad waiter, and the people will come.  As our nephew who lives in downtown Chicago says, "You have to know where to eat in Chicago."  We did manage to find some excellent food in Chicago including the best pizza we have ever had.

   Chicago is a city that literally does not sleep. People are on the streets twenty-four hours a day.  Sleeping amid mayhem is apparently a learned behavior.  From our hotel room, we could hear ambulances screaming through the night at all hours, and one morning around 4:00, a group of people had a party in the street below our room. 

   Slow people like us have a bit of a problem getting around in downtown Chicago.  People walk six or seven abreast, and to avoid being either trampled or swept away by the tide of pedestrians, we often had to stop and plaster ourselves against a building.  We soon learned that the city buses and the subway were the way to go, but those were not without their problems.  For instance, the entrance to the subway looked like a place my mother would have warned me not to go.

   Chicago Transit Authority bus drivers do a wonderful job of maneuvering through traffic and managing large crowds of commuters. However, one of their basic tenets is "Dawdlers will not be tolerated."  If you have not noticed, people in Oklahoma dawdle a lot.  We walk slow, we talk slow, and we stop and consider.  This lifestyle does not translate in downtown Chicago.  The mantra there is hurry.  As the voice on the subway warns, "The doors are closing now."

   In spite of the breathtaking pace of the city, we had a wonderful time exploring Chicago.  The museums, the shows, the tours, and the sheer pleasure of being in such a dynamic place gave these two country mice the thrill of a lifetime.

Testing the Technology Waters

   I recently acquired a Nook e-reader.  That fact may not be stupendous news for many of you, but for me, a person who adores the look and feel of a physical book, this new leap into the 21st century was nothing less than a paradigm shift, so to speak.  Now here is the surprising part:  I love it!  I can think about a book I would like to read, and from the comfort of my own home, I can acquire that book almost immediately.  I can either purchase the title from Barnes and Noble or check it out of my local library.  A few seconds to download onto my Nook and voila!  I am ready to read.  It is sort of the fast-food/microwave version of book acquisition.
   Now for the downside to this little technical wonder.  I recently took my Nook on a trip.  It was wonderful to carry all my reading material in one light-weight device; however, an e-reader is one of those devices that must be turned off during take-off in an airplane.  So while my husband read at least two chapters in his old-fashioned book, I waited for the signal saying it was okay to turn on electronic devices.
   Another disadvantage to my Nook is the complicated process of learning to check out books.  Yes, I said "learning" to check out books.  Our library offered a class on checking out e-books, in which I chose not to participate.  After all, how hard could it be?  Well, I know I am probably the exception, but it took me six hours to figure it out.  That's one fourth of a day.
   Who would have thought that we would someday live in a world where we would need a special class to learn how to check out a book from the library?  But life in general has become so technically complex that many of us spend our days in  a constant state of confusion and irritation.  Take remote controls, for example.  If I go to my daughter's house, I cannot watch her television because I can't work the remote control.  In fact, I don't even know which of the myriad of remotes works the TV.  I had been feeling a bit stupid and inadequate because of this frustrating fact until I watched (on my own TV) 60 Minutes on CNBC.  The subject of the show was overly complicated technology.  The show featured a man who had a Ph.D. from MIT who could not work his remote.  Needless to say, I felt validated.
   We often hear that older adults and senior citizens cannot learn to use new technology.  Young people supposedly having grown up in the computer age have a natural affinity for all things technical.  Well, I am here to tell you that little bit of information is a myth.  While some senior citizens eschew all things technical, it has nothing to do with ability.  They simply look at technology as a waste of time.  (Remember six hours to learn to check out a library book.)  It is true that many young people are adept at posting their lives on social networking sites, and they are attached to their cell phones like the devices are appendages as necessary to life as a hand or a foot.  However, a great many of those same young adults struggle to navigate the educational software they are required to use in college classes.  In addition, utilitarian software such as word processing and spreadsheet programs baffles them.
   The truth, I suspect, is that life nowadays is technically challenging and frustrating for a majority of us.  I sometimes feel that life is like an old VHS tape on fast forward.  But unlike the tape, there is no way to hit the pause button and catch our breath.

Late Winter Slump

I am tired of winter. I know it is March and spring officially begins this month, but this is Oklahoma after all. Weather here has a manic quality, especially in March. Start the day in a light jacket, and by evening, winter will have come crashing back complete with sixty mile-an-hour winds and an impenetrable layer of ice. March just cannot be trusted. Even though we have had a very warm winter and the temperature now is mild, I will not feel that winter is safely behind us until we bid this fickle month good-bye.

I want to believe, however, in spring's imminent arrival. The signs are certainly there; I saw two robins, those perennial harbingers of spring, frolicking in the yard recently. Flowers are beginning to just peek from the branches of fruit trees, and my daffodils have bravely pushed up through the hard ground, their shoots bulging with promise. The days are getting ever so slightly longer, and I yearn to troll the aisles of garden centers. I drive by greenhouses, peering inside hoping to glympse flats of bedding plants. I am certain that I can even smell spring in the air.

Being the practical person that I am though, I will wait a few weeks longer before I invest in potting soil, fertilizer, and bright-colored annuals. I am not going to be fooled into thinking that winter has passed before its time. I will not be taken in by the capriciousness of March.

Flower-Power Bag

One of my daughters is a bag lady. She never goes anywhere without a minimum of two bags. She always carries a purse, of course, but in addition, she totes a large bag of supplies for her two toddlers. Sometimes the toddler bag turns into two,and since she is a school counselor, she often has a bag of school-related material. So I decided she needed an all-purpose bag that could be used for anything. I came across a pattern for a bag that looked like it would fill the bill in a book entitled One-Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins. The design is called Folklore Bag, and the picture showed a bag constructed of a tan country-style print. I liked the design but not the fabric, so I made mine from soft pinwale corduroy in two coordinating prints. Then I embellished it with yo-yo flowers. I think the result was fabulous with its sixties-mod look.
There are just four pattern pieces to the project, but it is not for the beginning seamstress. For one thing, the directions have very few illustrations. Even though I have sewn for many years, I still had reread the directions several times. Also the pattern required top stitching in some very tight spots. Turning the bag right side out was no small feat either. All in all though, I would say that the day I spent making the Folklore Bag was well spent.

Review of "The Postmistress" by Sarah Blake

The Postmistress is a historical novel dealing with the period of time just prior to the United States' entrance into World War II. It is set in a small Massachusetts coastal town and Europe. The main characters are Emma, a young bride; Iris, the postmaster of the small Massachusetts town; and Frankie, a young woman reporter for the Columbia Broadcasting System. It is the story of how the three women's lives become entangled and involved in a war that the United States is not yet a part. While the story seems a little disconnected at times, it reinforces the fact that history is not just treaties, Congressional acts, and military campaigns. Serious study of history involves the lives of ordinary people. A quote by Martha Gellhorn from The Face of War in the front of the book says, "War happens to people, one by one." Author Sarah Blake attempts to show how the war happens to three very different women.

New Year, New Me

Well it's the New Year, the official start to 2012. TV talk-show hosts and the Internet are all abuzz with how to reinvent ourselves. If they are to be believed, this could be the year of the new me. If all goes as planned, I will be totally unrecognizable this time next year. That is a big "if."
I have never really understood all the ado about New Year's celebrations and resolutions. When I was growing up, the New Year came and went without notice. No one stayed up past midnight; fireworks were not even part of the Fourth of July; and resolutions were unheard of. So I have been considering why people get so excited about a date on the calendar.
I think our fascination with the New Year has to do with second chances. Sure we overate, overspent, and under exercised, but now we have a chance to make it right. We have a whole new year to become thin, to save money, and to shape up. Let bygones be bygones. We get a free pass, a clean slate. All is not lost. So in the spirit of renewal, I have made the following resolutions:

1. Lose weight (of course)
2. Learn to use the camera I got for Christmas
3. Finish the quilt I started two years ago.
4. Be bold

By the end of the year, I will be an assertive, thin photographer who owns a beautiful blue star-flower quilt. Aren't new beginnings grand?