Martini Musings

I Give Up!! I can honestly say that rarely have I said those words…maybe when playing Pictionary or Charades, but in my life, on a regular basis, those words have not been part of my vocabulary.   Today… I GIVE UP!!   Remember my New Year’s resolution?   The one where I was going to “UN-PLUG” from Saturday at noon until Sunday at noon?   Well, this past weekend, that ended.    I’m not proud of it but honestly, I can say, it didn’t do much for me. Here’s the scoop…I’m alone in my apartment, checking emails and preparing to “un-plug” on Saturday.   Then, noon comes and I put my phone in my bedroom, knowing that I will only check it if it rings…and if it is a family member I will answer.   All others will wait. I busy myself with Saturday chores and errands and when I look at the time, it’s only 4pm!   UGH!    I’m feeling isolated and I don’t like it.   I literally force myself to find things to do, take a walk, ...

Love is Love! This past weekend was one full of extraordinary love. Two people who are very special to me joined their hands in marriage.   I couldn’t be happier for these two guys.   In a world where it is a struggle to find kindness and good deeds, this past weekend, there was kindness and joy in a room full of quite the mixture of people. I was part of a same sex marriage ceremony.   Whether you agree or disagree with this or don’t understand, you would not be able to deny the love that filled the room.   It was magical and quite honestly, it’s hard to find the right words to describe it.  I felt that my heart could explode! The story of these two goes back thirty years.   It is a story that would make a good book, or movie because the seed for this love was planted, but did not flourish until just a little over two years ago. For some people, love is never found.   For others, love comes more than once.   For these two, I...

Today, we beg… The Gala is a little more than six weeks away and it is a non-stop job from this point on.   I have great co-workers who help in so many ways and I have great volunteers who step up, but some of the jobs just need to be handled by me. For anyone who has put together a major event, you know the many details that are often just “in your head!”   This is not necessarily a good thing, but it is a reality.   I’m working hard to delegate and to get that information into other places besides my head, but it isn’t easy. Perhaps the toughest part of the next few weeks will be the waking up in the middle of the night for no reason, or dreaming about something terrible happening to cause the Gala to be a bust.   Now, honestly, these are not dreams that I would ever consider vivid or even remote possibilities…for example, I’m fairly certain there won’t be a zombie invasion or an earthquake that will hold up the delivery of the items needed for The Gala...

One Week Down… We are well into the New Year and I’m happy to report I survived my first day of “un-plugging.”   It is hard people!   Really hard!   It’s especially hard when you are alone.   I ran a couple of errands and kept my phone turned off, so I wasn’t tempted during those times. However, while I was home, it was hard not to turn on the computer to look at Facebook or see pictures of Gabriel.   After the initial few hours, I found myself busy with small projects…cleaning out a drawer or two, working on getting my apartment out of holiday mode, and I even made some vegetarian chili (not because I wanted to but because I didn’t have any ground beef). I wrote some notes as follow-up to Christmas cards and I cleared my dining room table.   All of these things needed to be done and with the planned quiet time, I was able to be quite productive. Then I looked at the clock and it was only 6pm.  I realized that this was going to be s...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Today marks the beginning of a new year!    It is the opportunity to start fresh with new habits, routines, lifestyles, and game plans to make the year better than the previous year. For me, new beginnings continues to be much more meaningful than ever before.    Little did I know that at age 60 I would be starting over.    But I did.    In the process, I have become stronger and more independent than ever before.    I worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it and I worried that I would not be the same Lisa on some level. But I did...or at least I'm a work in progress.   I think I’m the same Lisa.    My personality is the same, although there are times when I wonder if I’m more snarky or sarcastic than I used to be.    Every day is a new day.    Not necessarily a new beginning, but a fresh start.   When I wake up in the morning, I take a deep breath and put my two...