I’ll wait till Groundhog Day

Posted on by Red (aka:DDJ)

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I have often wondered if New Year’s resolutions are merely an American cultural compulsion or a worldwide phenomenon. Personally, I think by labeling some grandiose idea you have a resolution, you are setting it up for failure without even requiring a new year.

What if—and I know this is crazy—we just set some goals that can literally start on ANY given day of the year, and just—gosh, I don’t know—tried really hard. I had my annual “Resolutions pie chart” ready and waiting for the chime of 2014 in my hand when I realized—who am I kidding?  The likelihood of any of these coming to fruition are less likely than my winning the lottery. Oh, were you wondering about my “Resolutions pie chart”?  Of course you were. About 20 years ago, I fell madly in love with pie charts.  Not having a real use for them, I decided I would incorporate them into my life by being my visual reminder of the many things I wished to change with the coming year.  Each piece of the pie would represent the importance to me by percentage. For example, wanting to change my eating habits—60%.  Wanting to have more self-control of my online shopping habit—15%.  And so forth and so on with the myriad of changes I wish to make, but inevitably won’t.

The truth is, for myself at least, that I fear in the back of my mind I allow resolutions to fail because no one really expects them to succeed anyway. It is almost a joke when you say… “yep, already broke THAT resolution”.  I don’t want the changes I wish to make to be THAT easy to walk away from. So this year will be DIFFERENT.

This year’s pie chart is a solid cobalt. 100%. I will, on a date known only to me, set forth and make the changes in my life that I wish to genuinely accomplish. With NOT participating in the rote perfunctory habits of a culture, I feel that I might actually be able to proceed and succeed with my goals.

Since the word resolution has become practically inconsequential in reality, I think everyone should jump off that supercilious bandwagon. Make the changes you want, live the life you want, and be the person you wish to see in the mirror every day… in a way that WORKS—in your own timeframe. That is my plan.

So, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone.  May the coming year be filled with good health and happiness.  May you—and I—bask in our sense of self and be overjoyed.

A SAFE AND HAPPY 2014 TO EVERYONE

Xoxo  DDJ and Clancy

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Bushkill Falls… The autumn return.

Posted on by Red (aka:DDJ)

Red (aka:DDJ)'s avatarDealing With Fools

DSC01032A bit past the beautiful colors, the trees are mostly bare and yet still pretty breathtaking.  A walk across the grounds of the hotel to the sound of crushing leaves on a magnificent, sunshine filled, unusually warm November day is calming and rejuvenating.   The crisp air is a stark contrast to the heat and humidity of this past summer.  There is a buck in the woods just staring in my direction… staring… not sure why, but he seems pretty confident I am of no threat.  And I try to assure him that I am most certainly not. My purpose is to re-create the Zen-like bliss I had in July.  This magnificent buck has set the ball in motion.

Sometimes I am reminded how lucky I really am.  The Bushkill Inn and its surrounding area has made an impression on me.  And for whatever reason, I seem to have made an impression…

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Bushkill Falls… The autumn return.

Posted on by Red (aka:DDJ)

DSC01032A bit past the beautiful colors, the trees are mostly bare and yet still pretty breathtaking.  A walk across the grounds of the hotel to the sound of crushing leaves on a magnificent, sunshine filled, unusually warm November day is calming and rejuvenating.   The crisp air is a stark contrast to the heat and humidity of this past summer.  There is a buck in the woods just staring in my direction… staring… not sure why, but he seems pretty confident I am of no threat.  And I try to assure him that I am most certainly not. My purpose is to re-create the Zen-like bliss I had in July.  This magnificent buck has set the ball in motion.

Sometimes I am reminded how lucky I really am.  The Bushkill Inn and its surrounding area has made an impression on me.  And for whatever reason, I seem to have made an impression on the people here.  How absolutely blessed am I to go back to this WONDERFUL resort and have people REMEMBER me!?  Picked up like it was 4 months ago.  Jen, the most amazing bartender in ALL of Pennsylvania, recognized me immediately… How great is that?  The people of The Bushkill Inn are really lucky to have such a genuinely great girl at the bar! I know I have said this before, but I will say it again.  I absolutely LOVE this place.  The people, everywhere I go are friendly, and kind and well… REMEMBERED me.  A stop for lunch at Petrizzo’s and—Shelly remembered me from my last visit back in July.  And a patron, Sue, remembered I have a—let’s just call it—healthy appetite. Both couldn’t have been nicer, and the food and service, as usual, fantastic. My lunch was not only great, but I was surrounded with friendly and fun people.  Total SCORE!

An unusually warm 60 degree day in Mid-November and I took a chance.  It could have been a bust with freezing temperatures or snow, but I really LUCKED out.  Was able to hike the Falls again.  I never get tired of that scenery.  It is awe inspiring, relaxing, and exhilarating all at once.  When you pass a couple or family or people with their dogs, everyone smiles and says hello.  A small, seemingly innocuous thing—unless you are a New Yorker…. THEN–I have to say–it is not just a little startling, but astonishing and wonderful.  I believe that kindness is contagious.  I come here to get infected.  😉

Back at the hotel, I made some new friends…. I wish I could name everyone… in fact I wish I remembered everyone’s names, but when the ENTIRE staff is amazing, it gets hard.  Next time I will take notes.   🙂 Again, the food at the hotel is wonderful, and I got to meet the chef, Marcos…. And what a great vision he has for food at Bushkill Inn and to expand the horizons of people who haven’t yet realized the JOY of being a “foodie”.  And Angie… Infectious and genuine laugh… If you are lucky enough to have her at your table… then you are LUCKY.  I wandered into the bar when the entertainment, Jimmy Brown was playing a really fun collection of tunes.  Exorcising the New Yorker out of me is a difficult task, but I was beginning to feel my blood pressure lower.   I had a little time to sit with my laptop and put words on a page–there is inspiration in this fresh air and motivation from all I come in contact with.

There is something about coming to The Bushkill Inn that just makes me happy. And it’s not just the S’mores at the fire pit… though that really DID help… And someone has to tell me the name of the young man who meticulously kept that fire burning with such precision because he was GREAT.  Like I said, I wish I could remember all the names, but they elude me right now… I remember Logan and Joe… I will just call them Dish Cleanliness Inspectors.  Good guys…  (And guys, listen to Marcos, he knows best.)

I am just prattling on about how great everyone is… and how wonderful my stay was—again—but I mean it.  Between the amazing staff, and wonderful amenities, and its proximity to Bushkill Falls, I just don’t know how you get better than this when you just need to DE-COMPRESS.  This IS the place to go… For me, I am just going to call it my second home.

See you all in the spring!

Xoxo DDJ

Pre S’mores Fire
Post S’mores Fire
Lisa, Angie, Jen, Red

NOMOPHOBIA – 66% of us have it

Posted on by Red (aka:DDJ)

cellphone

I feel lost.  Adrift at sea.  Alone on a deserted island. Frightened.  Anxious.  Worried.

I am not connected to my cell phone.

I cannot get news alerts, weather alerts, and random sales notices.  I do not have the ability to set my DVR, pay a bill, transfer money, or spontaneously purchase something I don’t need.  I cannot Facebook, or tweet or Instagram ANY of these concerns because I am without TECHNOLOGY.   I am CUT OFF.  Nomophobia… I have it. (Fear of being without your cell.)

For now this is just a horrible and unthinkable day—nightmare, BUT…

I have been going to and from my job for more than a quarter century. When I started, you were just UNAVAILABLE. You were unreachable.  I would get home from work and, if I was lucky, find messages on my tiny tape answering machine.  Ahhhh how that # 2 flashing would fill me with delight. TWO people are looking for me… must be important, they left a MESSAGE!   How I long for those days.

I have become someone I really don’t want to be.  I want to just turn it off. Leave it home.  But I have been brainwashed.  I hyperventilate at the idea of not being able to reach someone or have the profoundly joyous ability to send someone off to voicemail.  I am one of THOSE annoying people who wants to share every bit of paltry minutia that pops into my head…. WHEN it pops into my head!  If I wait, and the idea of it is horrific, I could forget to post the MOST adorable cat video…. EVER.

But I can’t stop. I am a tech addict.  I know people who want nothing to do with social media, who choose not to have their cell with them at ALL times, who don’t need to text or use their cell phone to book a spontaneous trip, who are fine not setting their DVR’s—and OH MY GOD, I hope they have one—or Instagramming the most amazing Street Cart Waffle in HISTORY. I just don’t really know how they do it. For me, this is an unimaginable scenario with unspeakable consequences.

You just know the day I try to prove I can do without my beloved technology will be the day I have won something and they try to reach me but CAN’T, or the day that “oh, Red… had an extra ticket, first row… tried to reach you” kind of day.  The ‘what if’s’ are staggering and again… I am hyperventilating.

Is it possible to go BACK after you have enjoyed the benefits this kind of technology has to offer? Can I just NOT be available for a day or a weekend?  Can I put on pumps and a dress and pearls and bake pies?  NO … NO is the answer.  I can NOT do it.  I really would like to say I am above this. But I am not. I am incurable.  I have the techno bug, and a thirst for knowing everything and knowing it now. Without the ability to GOOGLE at the drop of a hat, what on earth would I have done when trying to remember the name of an arcade game from 1996 that was SO awesome, I decided, I not only wanted to remember the name, I wanted to find one for sale, and maybe even buy one in the next 5 minutes? WHAT would I do without GOOGLE!  No worries, evidently, the PROP CYCLE by NAMCO of 1996 is something of arcade legend and is really hard to find… at a price that would make me MORE nuts than I already am. (Figures).

But still, the very moment I thought of it, I was able to track down the name, find out its history and subsequently find one for sale in under a few minutes.  The circle of my neurosis complete, I was able to put to sleep my wondering what it was called, and whether I could have one. Mission accomplished.  Heavy sigh of relief.

Now, same scenario, pre this kind of awesome technology, I would be dead in the water.  It’s not as if I could go to a Chuck E. Cheese now and say…  “Hey, by the way, remember in 1996 when you had that game where you rode a bicycle and popped hot air balloons in the sky on a video screen?”  First of all let us sincerely hope the same people aren’t working there. But the point is I like instant gratification, and I will not apologize for that.

Is it really wrong to need to know the news, or the weather, or Hollywood gossip, buy a pair of boots or find a recipe…. NOW?  When I think of how completely integrated my life is WITH technology today, it is actually a little scary.  The dependence, for me, is all consuming.  For the record, had I been trapped on Gilligan’s Island, it would have been the Professor I would have cozied up to.  He did, after all, build a radio from a coconut. 🙂

I am going to try to go—oh dear—without my technology for maybe a day, soon.  I don’t hold out much hope for success, at least not without vicious side effects.  But I don’t believe that my proving that I CAN’T be without technology in any way should portray me as weak or pitiful.  Some people need oxygen…. I need PULSE. (It’s an app, look it up.)  Well, back to some shopping, or baby Panda watching, or California Sea Lion watching.  Still have 30 minutes on the train.  I am—perhaps—a little weak.  But I can live with that—on 4G LTE.   🙂

xoxo  DDJ

Does anybody really know what time it is? (Does anybody really care?)

Posted on by Red (aka:DDJ)

charlie chaplin

My Chicago reference aside, I am awake.  I suppose I did not take advantage of that EXTRA hour of “time” we supposedly conjured up.  Daylight savings time, practiced by some 70 countries around the world and in the U.S., sans Arizona and Hawaii—and no… I do not know why—has been around in some form since World War I. Actually, I read that Benjamin Franklin, in 1784 thought it was a good idea to get up with the sun in order to make use of sunlight rather than having to use expensive candles.  WELL, I have one thing to say to that, Ben… It’s called my always available 20% off coupon for Bed Bath and Beyond, and Yankee Candles.  Problem solved, and now stop messing with my BRAIN.

DST, first widely used during WWI to save coal was repealed during peacetime, then reinstated during WWII.  It was 2007 when a law signed by President Bush in 2005, extended DST by 4 weeks.  Again, not positive of the actual ENERGY savings reasoning, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with an extra hour of daylight for trick-or-treaters.  Again, my research here is a bit thin.

As I know, many of you are dealing with confused pets or children or both this very morning, I will mention a more dire scenario.  According to the American Journal of Cardiology, there is a—albeit modest— increase in Myocardial Infarctions with the switch to and from Daylight Savings Time–which may reasonably be called Daylight Death Time.  The study actually included 935 people, (59% men, 41% women). Don’t get too hung up on the fact that there WAS a study, I’ve already done that for you.  The greatest shift came on that first Sunday after the spring shift in “time”.  My conclusion, was that people DON’T like having their sleep patterns MESSED with. But, it turns out that isn’t scientific.  There were shifts in cardiac events in both time changes and the conclusion of this study showed that “DST might transiently affect the incidence and type of acute cardiac events”.  Money well spent, guys. So, what have we learned?  Pets, people, and anyone with the mere possibility of a heart condition are affected by this seemingly irrelevant and inconclusively purposed—at least in modern times—change of the clocks.   In fact, there is a very real research that shows with the spring change of the clocks, and people being awake more with the sun, more energy is being used with Air Conditioning.  And the similar use of heating costs increases with our fall change of the clock.

So, does this make sense to ANYONE?  I already have enough trouble with sleep patterns based off such things as…. Health, and LIFE, and WORK.  Do I really need to change the clock twice a year and wreak havoc with my brain… and the tiny brain of my HUNGRY kitty????

I suppose it is a minor gift in that we didn’t use Ben Franklin’s original idea he had for Paris, which did not include changing of clocks at all. In order to take advantage of using sunshine instead of candles he suggested the levying of a tax on window shutters, ringing church bells at sunrise, and if that didn’t work, firing cannons down the street to get Parisians out of bed earlier.  I think, perhaps Mr. Franklin just didn’t care for the French, because that is pretty extreme.  😉

So, I have officially wasted my extra hour today pondering my extra hour.  Maybe that was the master plan.

Xoxo  DDJ