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It’s 26 degrees Fahrenheit. We got about two inches of snow yesterday.
Posted for John’s Cellpic Sunday
Cellpic Sunday
Watercolors – update
As I posted about (a lot), I took a watercolors class last semester and really enjoyed it. I got a lot of nice feedback, both in person and from the very supportive readers of my blog. I put a couple of my paintings in frames (frames that I already owned—not new ones), and my daughter even hung one set of 5x7s on the wall in her living room.
I decided to register for another watercolors class this semester, with a different teacher. Even though I liked my teacher last semester, I wanted to try someone else because I feel like you learn different things from different teachers—especially in the arts. But, lo and behold, the class I chose was canceled due to under-enrollment. So, lesson learned: some arts teachers have followings. If you choose one who doesn’t have regulars (people who re-enroll each term), your class might get canceled.
Rather than scrambling to find another class, I took the refund.
But, I do want to keep going so I’m doing a watercolor “workbook” that my very thoughtful daughter gave me for Christmas.
It focuses on botanicals (which is a sub genre of watercolors, like landscapes) and is fairly structured, compared to the free spirit teacher I had last semester. I’m sure I’ll learn some new things. First step was to swatch out all my colors and then mix new colors according to the author’s recipes.
Oh Martha
If you’re an older GenX American woman like me, you have feelings about Martha Stewart.
Maybe you liked her in the 80s and had a few linen skirts that looked just like hers. In the 90s, maybe you started to find her annoying when your friends threw over-the-top wedding showers that made you feel inadequate. Then maybe you were indignant that authorities had the GALL to put Martha in JAIL in 2004 on ridiculous charges and she took it like a champ and helped the other women she met in the slammer.
And maybe after that, you found Martha & Snoop an amusing duo and realized that no matter what she does, you will pay attention because she is Martha Stewart. And you are not.
On that note, I made Martha Stewart’s Cacio E Pepe With Lemon last night. Yes, I was annoyed that the “Grana Padano” cheese she uses is not readily available in stores. The Whole Foods cheese guy hadn’t even heard of it. How very Martha! (I substituted Parmigiano-Reggiano and it was fine.) And yes, I was irritated that I had to grind 4 teaspoons of pepper by hand, because everyone knows that when Martha calls for “freshly cracked pepper” she means it. And finally, NO I did not happen to have a MEYER lemon on hand, but thankfully Martha made it clear that any lemon would do.
The result was good. Very good.
I doubled the recipe so I could use the whole package of spaghetti, rather than half.
“Cacio e Pepe” is simply pasta with cheese and pepper and it’s a classic Roman dish.
Some good things…
I’m still getting over the high drama of last week which was a major paradigm shift in my family of origin, although it harkens back to something I recently reflected on as part of a Thursday Doors post (of all things).
I went to online guided meditation on Friday and it did help calm me, as I had hoped. I keep thinking of the last thing my minister said as she led us into our breathing:
“A present moment is a happy moment.”
It’s a great sentence to return you to your inhale. And then I find I just sort of naturally smile a bit on the exhale when I think of that sentence. It’s been helpful this week.
And then that same minister gave a great sermon on Sunday entitled “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” She is so smart and funny and very GenX in all her cultural references. I love Rev Lara! Her sermon starts at minute 26:30 in this video, if you want to check it out.
I felt so grateful to be in my church community on Sunday.
The other MAJOR good thing is that my husband really seems to have turned the corner in his knee replacement recovery. It’s been SEVEN long weeks, but he can actually walk around Costco with me now. We’ve been out to movies and restaurants a few times. He still keeps the knee elevated and on ice a LOT, but needs the pain drugs way less. (Sadly, he needs to have the other knee replaced in March, but at least he’ll know what he’s getting into next time.)
Another good thing is that we had a fun family Zoom with my husband’s side of the family on Sunday, with three new additions on the screen (my granddaughter and two other toddlers). My in-laws are a very good group overall. By no means perfect, but a solid family. No MAGA. No Trumpers. We’re spread all the way down the East Coast from Boston to NYC to DC to Orlando, so we don’t get to see each other much, but they are THERE and I’m grateful.
Also, I get to see BOTH my son and my daughter and my granddaughter this week…AND possibly all of us together on Saturday for a trip to the Aquarium, which would be a Grandma dream come true. 🤞🏼
I’m so grateful for my husband, my son, my daughter and her family, my in-laws, and my church family.
AND I’m also extremely grateful for the support from my WordPressBlog Community. I really can feel it, which is wild. Stephanie, May, CJ, Edward, Andrea, Liz, Shelly & MyGenExerLife and anyone who sent me silent good vibes—thank you 🫶
High Drama
Oh. My. God. I have undergone the most incredible, emotional family drama over the past five days, I can’t even tell you!
Thankfully I have two awesome friends, a supportive husband, and two wonderful children, who helped me make it through to its dramatic conclusion today.
Someday, I will write a post about what happened, but not today.
Please send calming vibes my way. I need to get my heart rate back to normal and start sleeping and eating again.
Grief
The fact of that matter is that the personal situation I’ve been alluding to is very serious emotionally.
My boundary setting over the holidays has resulted in the ending of relationships that I thought were unbreakable.
I’m grieving people who are still alive. I’m very upset. I can’t move on quickly from this. And it comes at a challenging time with my husband still struggling with pain from his surgery. It feels like people chose to kick me when I was down.
It sucks.
Internet Wisdom
I’m not usually one to post internet wisdom, but given a recent event in my life, I went looking for some.
I liked this:
My blog is called “50 Happens” because I started it when I turned 50. Looking back at my posts, I see that one of my big realizations in my 50s was that all the little moments along the way are what actually matter. It’s about the journey, not the destination.
I’m lucky in that I’m not one of those women who has a hard time sticking up for herself. I can express myself, even if it leads to conflicts with others. I can be a bit righteous. I know that.
But now that I’m 60, I see clearly that time is limited. I’m truly not interested in any type of unnecessary drama. There’s too much real drama in life and in the world to contend with.
I believe I owe others:
Basic civility/politeness
Non-cruelty
Honesty about boundaries
I believe I deserve:
Happiness
Peace
Rough start
Sometimes when you set a boundary and choose to protect your peace, you learn that someone doesn’t care for you the way you thought they did.
This is hard.
To be honest, I was not expecting to be starting 2026 dealing with this particular type of grief/heartache, but here we are. Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.
12 Memories from 2025
OK, we’ve reached the last day of 2025. It was certainly not the year I had hoped for when I worked on the 2024 election. Let’s face it, a full year of Trump 2.0 has been devastating. Ain’t no way to sugarcoat that. And we’re only 25% done with the senile tangerine rapist’s second term.
But I’m going to look back on non-political memories of 2025 and post 12 photos (one from each month). I double-checked that these are all photos I haven’t previously posted. No more Ireland pics I promise!
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year’s Eve. Our plan is to go to the movies to see Wicked Part 2. I’m a Wicked fan, but we haven’t seen Part 2 yet due to The Knee. Hopefully this first foray back to the movies will go well.
Anything Goes Week
The week between Christmas and New Year’s is unlike any other.
No school. No work (or less work) for many. Hopefully all the shopping, wrapping and cooking paid off on Christmas and everyone had fun, but now is the time of no chores, no commitments, no challenges.
I told my husband it’s “anything goes” week. If he wants three Godiva chocolates for breakfast, that’s fine. If I want to wear my Comfy and slippers into a store, I will. (My slippers have hard bottoms, like real shoes 😉.)
My high school did the musical “Anything Goes” when I was in junior high in the late 70s, so I never got to be in it. But my friend’s older brother had one of the lead roles. We idolized those older kids and couldn’t wait to get to high school so we could be in the musical too. I still remember all the songs, especially the title song.
Here’s Sutton Foster in the Act 1 Finale of Anything Goes on Broadway. She got a Tony Award for her part in this production.
50 Happens 