In search of a Piñata…..

On September 24, 2014 By DGThomaIn Family, Friends, Humor/Light Hearted, Musings, Writing1 Comment

Sometimes there just isn’t enough silly in the world.

When I found out my adult children were both going to be home (in my home) for their birthdays, I decided to create a party reminiscent of one of their childhood celebrations. My son and daughter were born 2 years and 5 days apart. Until the age of 11 and 13, they always shared a birthday party. One year the party was a Sesame street theme, and another year it was a skating party. No matter what the theme, we always had a great family celebration and lots of fun.

I enlisted my granddaughter, Jill and her mother to help with the planning. We set off to our local big box store to buy some party favors. As we filled our cart with bubbles, noise makers and more party favors, Jill looked up and said “We have to get a piñata!” There were several piñatas on the shelf; a traditional donkey, a Teen-aged Mutant Ninja Turtle (the new version) and a few miscellaneous others.

But, hanging from a wire overhead, there were a dozen or more colorful piñatas. Right in the center was a brightly colored bull piñata. It was perfect and exactly what we wanted. My daughter, Kat, went to find a sales associate to assist us in retrieving the piñata.

Kat returned with an associate who informed us Martha was on the way. Ten minutes later we were debating how to make a human pyramid so we could get the piñata ourselves. We couldn’t agree who should be the base of the pyramid or we might have attempted it. My vote was to stand in the cart and try to reach for it. I was vetoed for safety reasons.

About this time Martha showed up and started rummaging around at the ends of the aisles. Grumbling and frowning, she mumbled something about a piñata stick. She continued to pace back and forth, up and down the aisle as if the infamous piñata stick might appear by osmosis. We on the other hand were still planning a pyramid strategy when she left the aisle.

Suddenly, over the loud speaker we heard “Who has taken the piñata stick? Someone please return the piñata stick immediately”. By now, I had started to bounce on my feet a bit wondering if I could jump up and knock the piñata down. A manager wandered by and I launched into the quandary of the missing piñata stick and explained that I was thinking I could almost reach it if I jumped up. Now the manager looked up and I could tell he was wondering if he could jump up and grab the piñata, but instead he said he would go find Penny, because she could fix anything.

Now another 10 minutes went by before the manager and Penny returned. The manager smiled and told us we were in good hands as he wandered away. Martha returned and continued walking aimlessly up and down while Penny searched secret hideaways behind the end-caps. Still no one had recovered the elusive piñata stick. Penny left and I’m thinking “Who needs a piñata anyway”, when suddenly she returned triumphantly holding the piñata stick. The entire aisle broke into cheers, (even though it was only the three of us and the returning manager), it was still awesome.

One manager, and three associates later, we had a Piñata in hand and were off to plan a birthday party!

Biking and Other Happy Rembrances

On September 17, 2014 By DGThomaIn Friends, Musings, Writing2 Comments

Flipping through some old journals recently, I found an entry about my introduction to bike riding. It invoked a wonderfully pleasant memory.

About 20 years ago, I was recently divorced and trying to determine who I was supposed to be and who I wanted to become. One of my newly acquired interests was cycling. I’d made a new friend who was an avid cyclist and was not only teaching me to love riding but also loaned me a bike.

One of our first cycling trips was to Caprock Canyons State Park just outside Quitaque, Texas. We started the trip on Friday, arriving late and spending the night at a campsite. Early the next morning we awoke to a herd of deer outside our campsite. The deer were shrouded in fog and milling about on the grass completely unaffected by our presence. After a quick breakfast of granola bars, we set out on our bicycles.

6:00 AM and ready to ride - maybe! — 6:00 AM and ready to ride – maybe!

We rode on the park roads to help me get comfortable on the bike. The roads were very hilly and I remember flying down the hills, building speed and then having to get off the bike and push it up the next hill, so I could soar down again! I felt like I was six years old! Of course my friend had no problem biking up or down. We logged seven miles that morning and I was quite proud of the accomplishment.

In the afternoon, we drove to Quitaque Canyon Trail. The trail is a nature trail formed along the path of an old railroad route.

The Quitaque Canyon Trail is about 17 miles long and according to Rails to Trails “This area is one of the most picturesque and interesting throughout the entire Trailway due in part to Clarity Tunnel at mile 12.”

I wouldn’t know about that. I only made about 1/2 mile through the sand when I realized I wasn’t quite ready to tackle bicycling through sand. I chose instead to sit at the trail head and write in my journal. It was a beautiful and restful afternoon.

A few things that stand out in my mind from that day are: Friends are invaluable, laughter really is the best medicine and the Rails-to-Trails Conservatory is a great organization.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a non-profit organization. They have repurposed over 20,000 miles of trail. If you enjoy nature and the idea of recycling the rail network to provide a trail system appeals to you, I highly recommend searching one of the Rails to Trails across the United States to hike or bike. Relax, rediscover nature and maybe smile a bit.

Labor Day Celebration

On September 10, 2014 By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Writing1 Comment

Labor Day falls on the first Monday in September. It is intended to be a celebration of social and economic successes for American workers. What it has become is a celebration of eating food and family gatherings. (Made possible by the economic successes of American workers)

My Labor Day plans this year were to relax at home, foot elevated. I was sidelined with a broken toe, my husband Ron was out-of-town and the rest of my extended family had made other plans.

My plans were very non-specific . I anticipated a quiet day at home catching up on some reading, writing and sewing. Happily, my plans changed.

On Saturday I found out my son was coming on Monday to spend the day and my husband was planning on returning early in the afternoon on Monday. I love company and I love celebrations! I was excited I would have enough people for a quasi-celebration, but suddenly I needed to plan a meal for Monday evening.

I wanted to serve something non-traditional. Normally, we would just grill burgers and hot dogs for the guys and maybe tuna steaks or shrimp for me. That just didn’t sound appealing this time.

So stepping out from the norm, we came up with something a bit different. Our menu consisted of Jalapeño chicken and venison sausage for the meat lovers. For me, it was Lentil Hyderabad (lentils with spices and chilies) and a curry wild rice mix. We bought some freshly baked Naan bread and grilled fresh sweet potato and Irish potato spears, lightly salted. It was a wonderful meal, but even as wonderful as it was, my favorite part was the dessert. (Of Course!)

We sliced peaches, topped them with fresh blueberries, then sprinkled them lightly with a small amount of brown sugar and nutmeg.

We served the warm fruit with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was absolutely delicious and completely different from our normal holiday meal. Considering it was last minute, I think it just may be one of my favorite holiday meals.

Catching flies with honey, Why?

On September 3, 2014September 3, 2014 By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Friends, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

The real question is can you really catch more flies with honey? And why would you want to catch more flies? Not me! But a loose translation of “nice things happen when you behave nicely” sounds a little better.

You hear a lot about people doing nice things for total strangers, otherwise known as random acts of kindness. I think that’s awesome, and I wish I remembered to do it more often.

I recently had a great experience at Starbucks and it wasn’t because I had invented and ordered the largest and most obnoxious combination I could find.

My sister, Deb and I were meeting on the road midway between our respective homes. She lives on the Texas coast and I live in Central Texas.

We met in the parking lot of a shopping center and after exchanging boxes and bags; we decided to grab a coffee for the road from the Starbucks across the street.

The store wasn’t particularly crowded when we walked in which looked promising. However, when Deb tried to pay for her drink, the computers went down. A manager came and took over the register but still couldn’t get the transaction to process. My son and I were next in line and the barista and manager kept apologizing for the delay.

My son, Rich previously managed a retail store, so he just smiled and said he understood. He assured them both that it was not a problem. It was probably only 6 or 7 minutes of waiting. Rich entertained us all, the employees included, with jokes and stories. We all laughed and enjoyed ourselves despite the situation.

When my son and I were finally able to place our order, I handed them cash, since they seemed to still be having trouble with the card reader.

The manager shook his head and said, “No charge, you guys were great. I’m sorry for the wait. ” What a wonderful surprise! Maybe our drinks would still have been free if we had grumbled and complained, but the mood would certainly have been different for all of us. (And yes my sister’s drink was also free!)

I’m not saying that I am never the grumbling complaining customer, but it was a wonderful reminder that sometimes being pleasant pays off. Thank you Mr. Starbuck’s manager for making our day a little brighter!